System Error
by RennyBanette
Summary: A series of one-shots, called 'parts', focusing on Chaud Blaze and his NetNavi ProtoMan. Based mostly on the anime, but takes some elements from the games and manga.
1. Proto-13, Part 1

Hello, and welcome to _System Error_ , AKA the one-shot series that me and a friend, Cinnamononions, came up with.

We kinda started talking about headcanons and shit, and then I brought up this headcanon thing I saw once about ProtoMan being blind and needing his visor thing to see - turns out that was actually Cin's thing, so we got to talking about that, and I wondered whether or not this would have any effect on Chaud while they were Cross Fused.

So, yeah, this fic is essentially a compilation of various headcanons and other things based entirely around Chaud and ProtoMan. I'll be uploading these one-shots in 'parts', so if there's a story (such as this one, called _Proto-13_ ) and it comes in several chapters rather than just a single one, I'll upload all the chapters when I'm done and those will be a 'part'.

It's called _System Error_ because of obvious reasons which will become clear as I continue writing the story - the most obvious of which is the reason for Cin and me headcanoning that ProtoMan is blind.

Anywho, I'll probably just upload shit as I go along, since this one-shot series isn't exactly gonna have much of a structure to it unlike my previous _MegaMan_ fic, _The Underground NetBattlers_. I actually mentioned this fic in the very last chapter of that as a sort of advert for it, but that fic and this one are set in entirely different universes.

 _System Error_ is largely based on the anime, since that's my first real experience with the _Battle Network_ series, but depending on what me and Cin come up with, I may also take some elements from the games or manga. One of those being MegaMan originally living as Hub Hikari, so he and Lan are twins here. Because why not.

Now that that explanation's over, let's get into this first 'part'.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

There were thirty of them. Thirty NetNavis - all of them prototypes - in a single, isolated Area, kept almost hidden away in the network of a company by the name of Zephyram.

These prototypes were the result of a recent project. This project would never have existed had it not been for the public's demands of more advanced Navis, essentially more 'human' Navis, and the thirty Navis that were kept inside of the isolated net Area of Zephyram were going to be the prototypes of future Navis.

Unfortunately, as prototypes, they all had their fair share of . . . errors. Some of the prototype Navis had strange glitches in their systems, a few of them minor, while others were so obviously glitched it was difficult to tell why their creator had yet to delete them.

One of these prototypes was a Navi by the name of Proto-13.

Proto-13 was one of the more 'successful' prototypes. He - for that was his assigned 'gender' - could say this without a hint of arrogance, as the prototypes' creator had said it on various occasions, but there was just one fatal flaw in his 'success' as a prototype NetNavi. His system error, if you would.

But it wasn't too much of a problem, he thought. Unlike some of the others - such as Proto-8 or even Proto-23 - his errors were low in number. He only had a couple of serious glitches and a few minor ones, while other prototypes had as many as fifty-four major glitches (Proto-3 was the unlucky prototype Navi with that many glitches). Proto-13 had often heard his creator and other humans say how ironic it was that a Navi with such an unlucky number was potentially the luckiest one of all, but Proto-13 was uncertain as to why his number would be unlucky.

However, while he was uncertain as to the reason behind his 'unlucky' number, Proto-13 did know that his major glitch, his error, was probably one of the strangest out of all of the prototype Navis.

" . . . just prototypes, of course they have errors and glitches. You can't expect us to get them perfect the first time around."

"But as I understand it, you've created thirty of these 'prototypes' - that suggests you should have seen some improvement, yet you continue to have problems."

Proto-13 perked up. The first voice he'd heard was his creator, but he didn't know the second voice. It certainly didn't sound like any of the other people who worked with his creator on the prototype Navi project. Perhaps this was his creator's superior?

"We're trying different methods and various system changes. Each one of these Navis have vastly different systems, and some of these are more successful than others."

"They all look very similar, though. Is there any particular reason?"

"Well, we're just trying to figure out how to make them more advanced first. Design can come later. Besides, I don't think we need to show the public our prototypes, just the finished version."

The second voice suddenly became sharp. "And the finished version may not even be shown to the public, the way you and your team are working. You said you'd have one good prototype ready to show us. You have thirty, and none of them are anywhere near complete enough to show anyone."

"You have to understand, these things take time. NetNavis are far more complex than simple programs, especially these ones - programming their systems takes a very long time and we don't want to rush in case we make any mistakes. The company's reputation is on the line here."

"Fine, fine, just show me the Navis you told me about. I'll discuss it with the rest of the board afterwards, we'll see if your project shows enough promise. If it doesn't, I'm afraid we'll have to cut funding and you'll need to move on to something else, Shuseki."

"Yes, of course, sir. Right this way - I'll just call up the Navis . . ."

Proto-2, Proto-10, Proto-14, Proto-21 and Proto-29 were all called, along with Proto-13 himself.

He stood in line with the others with some difficulty. Proto-2, the second-oldest prototype in the group, helped him as much as she could, but it was very difficult to help him as she had no hands to speak of and could only nudge him in the correct direction.

Their creator started speaking again. "These six are the best ones we've created so far. They're the ones with the fewest glitches and errors, and we believe they show the most promise out of all of the prototypes."

"I'll be the judge of that," the second voice replied. " . . . That one doesn't seem to have any hands."

"Ah, yes, Proto-2. She . . . has a minor glitch that caused her hands to vanish one day, we didn't know about it until she started walking around with those stubs. There are also several other glitches in her systems that somehow cancelled her speech program."

"So the second prototype you created has no hands and no voice?"

"Yes." Their creator sounded slightly awkward.

"And you consider this to be one of your better ones?"

"Compared to some of the others, yes. But Proto-2 isn't the only one, the others are much the same - for example, Proto-10 has a strange glitch that causes his colour to change occasionally. Ah, there you go. Just like that. His colour changes at least three or four times a day, sometimes more if he's particularly . . . stressed."

"Stressed? NetNavis don't get stressed, Shuseki. They're computer programs."

"Yes, but as per their more advanced programming, we've also included something we call an emotion emulator program. It's not perfect, and there are errors that come with it, but our customers wanted more 'human' Navis, and that's what the emotion emulator is for."

"They're computer programs."

"It only emulates emotions, they don't actually feel anything."

The second voice hummed, but didn't sound particularly interested.

Their creator went through each of the prototype Navis, listing their glitches and errors but attempting to highlight their merits as well - although to Proto-13, this seemed to be somewhat of a lost cause as the second voice, who appeared to be someone that their creator wished to impress, was more focused on their flaws.

Proto-13 wanted his creator to do well with his presentation - for this was undoubtably what this was - so when it came to his turn to be presented to the second voice, he stood a little straighter and tried to look more like a proper Navi, although he didn't know exactly what that meant.

"What's wrong this one's eyes?" the second voice asked.

"Proto-13 is completely blind. There was some sort of strange glitch in his sight programming that we didn't notice until we'd booted him up, and by then it was too late to fix it, otherwise we'd risk deleting him - which we didn't want to do, as he's one of the most successful prototypes we've created so far. Aside from a minor balance glitch, there's not much else wrong with him."

"Hm."

The second voice didn't sound very impressed.

Proto-13 was . . . sad at this. He knew that he had let down his creator when he was needed most, and that was something a Navi, even a prototype, was not supposed to do.

"I'm sorry to say that your advanced Navi project doesn't look entirely promising," the second voice said to the prototypes' creator. "If these Navis are your best attempts, then we may have to cancel this project entirely."

Their creator was silent.

"Your idea does have some merits, I'll grant you that," the second voice went on. "The public wants more 'human' NetNavis, as absurd as it sounds. Zephyram needs to keep up with the times, however, so we'll need to produce more advanced Navis at some point. I'll discuss it with the board, like I said, but don't get your hopes up."

" . . . Of course."

Once the second voice was gone, their creator dismissed the six prototype Navis he had called for the presentation. But while the others wandered away, Proto-13 stayed where he was.

It took a while for his creator to notice him.

"What is it?" his creator asked, somewhat harshly. Proto-13 wasn't offended by this - his creator often spoke like this to the prototypes, and after something like that, he couldn't be blamed for being angry.

"I want to apologise," Proto-13 said to his creator. "That presentation didn't go as you planned, and I feel as though it was my fault. For that I apologise."

"It was your fault, yours and those other failures," his creator muttered. "Why couldn't we create a good prototype?"

That, Proto-13 knew, was a rhetorical question. It was not to be answered, so he kept silent and allowed his creator to take his anger out on him. That was, after all, what a Navi was for - to assist humans. And this was one way of assisting them.

"Master Blaze," he began politely once his creator had fallen silent himself, "who was the man you were speaking with?"

"NetNavis aren't supposed to ask questions," his creator said sharply.

"Of course," Proto-13 said, bowing his head in acknowledgement. "I apologise, I didn't mean to-"

But his creator surprised him by actually answering his question.

"That was one of the board of directors for this company," Proto-13's creator told him. "He wanted to know how the advanced Navi project was coming along, and requested to be shown our best work so far."

Proto-13 was proud to be considered part of his creator's 'best work so far', but the feeling only lasted for a moment as his creator continued.

"Evidently our best wasn't enough," his creator said bitterly. "You all fail to meet the standards that Zephyram demands of all its Navis. And without funding, we can hardly continue the project."

"I'm sorry," Proto-13 said quietly.

"Stop apologising," his creator snapped. Then he sighed irritably. "The way things are going, Zephyram will just be stuck in time, regardless of what the board says. They don't want to change what we already produce, since it works just fine - for now. I may as well just set up my own company, it would be much simpler . . ."

Proto-13 didn't know anything about this, so he offered no opinion - nor was he expected to. Navis weren't supposed to have opinions about anything.

Several days after the presentation, the board of directors reached a decision. Proto-13 knew this because he had been listening quietly to the voices of the humans in the team working on the advanced Navi project with his creator, and it didn't sound very good from what he heard. The board had decided that the advanced Navi project wasn't going anywhere, and had stopped funding it. They had also told Proto-13's creator to shut down the project entirely and delete all of the failed prototype Navis.

So Proto-13, along with all of the other prototypes, was to be deleted.

That made him sad. Proto-13 had been hoping that maybe the board would reach a different decision and that he and all of the other prototypes would be spared, but it made sense.

The project wasn't going anywhere, the youngest of the prototypes - Proto-30 - was evidence enough of that. If, after thirty attempts, the best the project could produce had their fair share of errors (and the most successful being completely blind), it was plain that the project would fail. Their creator would naturally need to delete all of them in order to wipe any existence of the project from Zephyram. Perhaps after this, their creator could start another project, and hopefully it would be more successful than this one.

Proto-13's only regret was that he would not be around to see it.

But he was surprised. When it came to his turn to be deleted - he had been last, for some reason, even though the others had all been deleted in numerical order - his creator did something very strange.

Instead of being deleted, Proto-13 was instead downloaded onto a data storage device with enough memory capacity to hold a NetNavi. There was no explanation for it, and he expected to be given none, but all the same he was curious.

Navis weren't supposed to be curious.

 **OOOOOO**

And that concludes the first chapter of the first 'part' of _System Error_ , _Proto-13_!

You can probably guess why it's called _Proto-13_. We'll be getting into different stuff in the next chapter.

Also, yeah, I'm kinda expanding on some of the stuff that Cin headcanoned about. This is my interpretation of the blind headcanon thing that she gave me, and since it's kinda difficult to describe anything from the POV of a blind person (or blind Navi in this case), I've kept this more or less . . . well, non-descriptive.

Keep in mind that this is the anime canon, and according to that canon, Shuseki worked at a Navi-production company by the name of Zephyram. At this point in time, Navis are kinda bland as hell and don't have much personality - hence why Proto-13 is sort of flat at the moment. But since these prototypes are (or were) the forerunners of the Navis we see in present canon, that means there's gonna be a lot of glitches and errors in their systems.

Proto-13's is, obviously, the fact that he's completely blind. But he's also the most successful of all of the prototype Navis, which is why Shuseki (the creator of the prototype Navis, obviously) didn't delete him like the others.

That reason never gets explained in the narration since Proto-13 isn't going to ask about it, and Shuseki isn't about to volunteer the information, so I'm gonna tell you guys right now just in case it never comes up again.

Anywho.

Read and review!


	2. Proto-13, Part 2

The second chapter here features a time-skip of about four years at the start. Chaud still has yet to be born, and Shuseki has set up the up-and-coming IPC.

Now, IPC is actually called BlazeQuest in the anime's dub, and you might all be wondering why I'm not using that name for the company when I'm using the English names. Well, IPC is supposed to be a tech company that specialises in PETs and stuff. BlazeQuest is a games company. It sounds cool, sure, but I need IPC more than I want BlazeQuest, so we're going with IPC even though anime dub canon doesn't call it that.

We're still going with Proto-13's POV, which means there won't be too much in the way of description. Anything that we get to know, we will know through dialogue.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

When his creator finally took Proto-13 out of the data storage device, Proto-13's internal clock told him that just over four years had passed since the deletion of his fellow prototypes. The network he stood in now felt completely different to the Area he'd been created in, however, and he tapped his foot against it curiously.

"Stop that," his creator said, and Proto-13 immediately went still. "Do you know where you are?"

"No," Proto-13 replied honestly.

"You are in the new network of IPC."

" . . . I do not recognise that acronym," Proto-13 admitted, after a quick search through his memory data.

"It stands for International PET Company," his creator informed him. "I created it eight months ago. I am both the founder and president."

Proto-13 recalled his creator mentioning that he may as well create his own company, but he had assumed that his creator had been joking. Humans were prone to that when they were under stress or otherwise irritated, as his creator often was.

It was clear that his creator was only telling him this and expected no comment, so he did not offer one.

"I took you out of the storage device because I've decided to create an entirely new line of NetNavis based on your programming," his creator informed him. "I need to scan you. The new prototypes will, of course, be more successful than you are."

"May I ask why?" Proto-13 asked his creator.

For a moment, his creator was silent. Proto-13 began to worry that he'd offended his creator, but it seemed as though he had actually been waiting for this.

"Over the past four years, there have been massive advancements in technology," his creator said. "With these new advancements, IPC will be able to create new advanced NetNavis that hopefully won't be complete failures like you and the other original prototypes."

Proto-13 wasn't offended by that. He was merely curious as to how his programming would be used to create more advanced Navis. Was his creator's ambitions being realised? Would his creator finally get to complete his failed advanced Navi project, with the resources his new company gave him?

And he would be able to assist in that. Far from being offended, he was instead proud that he could contribute to this achievement, as his creator had originally intended.

So his programming was scanned, and his systems examined. Proto-13 was shut down for most of it, so that the team his creator had assigned this to could fully examine him without accidentally messing up his systems. They observed him when he was 'awake' (for there was no other term he could think to use) so they could see how an advanced Navi could work, although of course the newer prototypes would not be so glitched.

Of course, the one problem in all of this was Proto-13's blindness. When IPC created the first prototype Navi based on his systems, it also turned out blind - and even more glitched than Proto-3 had been.

It took the team of programmers three more attempts to realise that following Proto-13's system specs exactly was not ideal, and so they tried different methods. Fairly soon, they had a fully-functional prototype Navi that didn't have any major glitches (just the typical prototype-level errors).

And from there, IPC began to flourish. Once they perfected their Navi production, Proto-13's creator - the president of IPC, he reminded himself with pride - was able to branch out into other things, such as PET production. That, he told Proto-13, was where most of the money was these days, as the public were beginning to grow used to advanced Navis and would soon want advanced PETs along with them.

IPC very quickly became one of the most powerful technology companies on the entire planet. Proto-13's only source of information was his creator, as he spent most of his time in his creator's office network, but this was the best source of information he could have.

He was there when his creator made contract deals that served to make IPC more powerful and influencial, and he was there when his creator decided to have his company specialise in PET production.

His creator was one of the most powerful men on the planet, and Proto-13 couldn't have been prouder. He was often caught smiling to himself, and while his creator wondered why a glitched prototype was smiling, Proto-13 kept his proud feelings to himself.

And several years after the first prototype based on Proto-13's systems was created, something wonderful happened.

Proto-13 now just spent all of his time inside of his creator's office network, as he had nothing else to do. Most, he knew, would have just simply deleted a Navi that did absolutely nothing, but for whatever reason, his creator kept him. Proto-13 liked to think that it was because his creator needed someone to talk to, someone who wouldn't question him or demand any explanations, and that was why his creator had not deleted him.

His creator came into his office one day, and seemed . . . almost happy. Proto-13 had rarely, if ever, known his creator to be anything remotely resembling cheerful, but that was how it seemed today.

He decided to speak first, something he had never done before, because he was curious.

"Master Blaze? What is it?" Proto-13 called.

Normally any questions would lead to his creator becoming angry and saying something along the lines of 'Navis aren't supposed to ask questions', but today was apparently a very good day for his creator.

"I have a son," his creator announced, almost proudly. "My wife has blessed me with the heir to my company."

"Congratulations," Proto-13 said. He didn't understand exactly why this was good news for his creator, but he at least understood that having a child, for humans at least, was a very happy occasion.

Although most humans were happy to have a child. His creator had said he was blessed with an heir. Was this some form of happiness that Proto-13 had yet to learn about?

Whatever this was, his creator was in a good mood all day. He even made casual conversation with Proto-13, something which he never did before, and allowed Proto-13 to ask questions - something which he would never have allowed under normal circumstances.

Through his questions and the answers his creator gave him, Proto-13 was able to learn more about the son that his creator's wife had given birth to.

His name was Chaud Blaze. He was a fairly small baby, having been born earlier than he should have been (Proto-13 didn't know much about human biology, but from what he did know, a premature birth could potentially be dangerous for the baby and mother), but aside from being smaller than average he was perfectly healthy. His wife was tired from the long birth but proud of her son.

Apparently the baby resembled his mother, from what his creator told him. Proto-13 didn't understand what that meant, nor did he understand when his creator described the baby to him (he had never known what it was like to see, and so could not imagine anything). But he at least understood that his creator was happy because of the birth of his son, and Proto-13 was happy because he was happy.

The next few years were almost perfect for IPC and its president.

Almost perfect, but for the one fatal flaw in any perfect life - death.

Proto-13's creator's wife suddenly became ill. It happened so quickly that no one, least of all his creator, was prepared for it. Doctors did everything they could, but were unable to identify what had caused her to become ill so suddenly. Proto-13 only knew what his creator told him when he came into his office (which wasn't often nowadays, as he was in and out of the hospital a lot to visit his ill wife), but it didn't seem very promising.

And then his creator stopped coming into his office altogether.

For days, Proto-13 wandered in the network of his creator's office, worried about the sudden silence that had gripped the room. If any living being had come into the office during those days, he did not know, for he heard nothing and was given no news.

But then almost a full week after the silence had began, it was broken.

His creator sat in his office chair, muttering to himself. He sounded extraordinarily tired, and had Proto-13 not been blind, he would have seen that his creator had great shadows under his eyes - the mark of a man who had not slept in days.

For the second time in his memory, Proto-13 was the one to initiate conversation.

" . . . Master Blaze?" he asked quietly. "Are you well?"

His creator didn't respond.

"Master Blaze? Master Blaze, what-"

"My wife is dead."

Proto-13 fell silent out of shock.

"She died last week," his creator went on flatly. "I wasn't there. Apparently no one even noticed she was dead until my son started crying. My wife died, and I wasn't there to say goodbye."

"I . . . I'm sorry," Proto-13 said quietly. It was all he could think to say.

But his creator growled. "Be quiet, you stupid program," he snapped.

Proto-13 obediently went quiet. His creator had not said anything like this for quite some time, so it was mainly out of surprise that he went quiet, but he also did not wish to antagonise his creator further while he was grieving like this.

"You don't understand human emotions, and you never will," his creator spat. "Damn program, why did I ever create you?"

He had asked a similar question to that once before, Proto-13 recalled.

His creator fell silent for such a long time that Proto-13 almost wondered if he had left the room. But then he spoke again.

"You're going to be downloaded onto a custom PET," his creator said. "One that can hold your program, as glitched as it is. You'll be a proper NetNavi."

Proto-13 was too surprised to respond. Him, downloaded into a PET? He was only a prototype, he had never been created to be a real Navi.

"You'll also be given a new name," his creator went on. "From this moment on, you'll be known as ProtoMan."

Proto-13 considered his options, and decided to ask the question that any new Navi - a real, proper Navi - would ask.

"Who will be my operator?" Proto-13 asked. He was almost hoping he would be given the chance to be his creator's NetNavi.

"My son," was the answer.

 **OOOOOO**

And so we figure out that Proto-13 is actually ProtoMan, just the earlier version of him.

Oh, come on, who didn't see this coming? It was pretty obvious, I think. But anyway, now we've got Proto-13 being ProtoMan finally, and this chapter here was basically just a sort of 'between' thing. The first one was why ProtoMan - or Proto-13 at the time - was created, and the one after this will be ProtoMan meeting Chaud for the first time. Meanwhile, this one basically bridges both chapters.

If anyone wants to see the notes that Cin made on the blind ProtoMan headcanon thing, then hop on over to Tumblr and look up hers, it's called cinnamononions, and the post should be somewhere in her blog. You can see where I got most of the blind stuff from, although the rest of our headcanons were made up during our various chats via the chat thing on Tumblr.

Anywho, next chapter will be the last in the Proto-13 'part'. After that, we'll time-skip again and it'll be something else entirely. I won't be giving away any spoilers, unfortunately.

Read and review!


	3. Proto-13, Part 3

Say hi to the final chapter of the _Proto-13_ 'part'! I'm taking some liberties with how Chaud and ProtoMan meet mainly because I don't remember their exact dialogue, so if anyone wants to complain 'but that's not what they said!', please remember this.

Also I pretty much don't care what they actually said, don't forget that this entire fic is basically just a bunch of probably-not-true headcanons that me and a friend came up with, and so I can do whatever I want with the dialogue, and their orginal meeting was weird anyway.

I also want to mention ProtoMan's visor. And actually his entire helmet. As Proto-13 and as he is at this moment in time, ProtoMan actually doesn't have his helmet at all. Just imagine ProtoMan as he usually is, minus the helmet. He still has his insanely long albino hair, don't worry, he just doesn't have the helmet. That's how I imagine him at the moment, at least until he does get the helmet.

Man, 'helmet' doesn't even look like a word anymore . . .

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"So . . . you're my NetNavi?"

"That is correct," Proto-13 - no, ProtoMan - replied.

His new operator, the son of his creator, was silent for several long moments. Proto-13 - ah, no, Proto _Man_ , he was going to have to get used to his new name - began to wonder whether or not his operator found him satisfactory. He knew very little about what a Navi was really supposed to do beyond assist their operators, and did not know if a Navi could be discarded if the operator did not like them.

Most likely the answer was 'yes', but ProtoMan didn't think he had done anything that would warrant his being discarded. Not yet, at least.

Finally, his operator spoke.

"What's wrong with your eyes?" he asked.

"I am blind," ProtoMan explained.

"So you can't see?"

"No, I cannot."

"At all?"

"That is correct."

Once again his operator fell silent.

ProtoMan also kept silent. He had a feeling that this was probably not how most first meetings between a Navi and operator were supposed to go, but then he was not a standard Navi, was he? So a non-standard first meeting was to be expected. He just hadn't expected it to feel so . . . awkward.

"Why are you blind?" his operator asked him.

"There was a glitch in my systems when I was first booted up," ProtoMan said, somewhat relieved that his operator was speaking again. "It caused my sight program to malfunction, leaving me completely blind."

"Oh . . ." his operator said. "Father said you were a prototype."

"Yes, I am," ProtoMan said. "That is the reason for my name. I was originally named Proto-13, and am now ProtoMan." He paused, and decided to take a small risk. "May I ask what your name is?"

He already knew, of course. His creator had told him quite a bit about his operator, but this could help him form some sort of bond with his operator. Navis were meant to do that, he knew. The bond could be anything from professional to personal. ProtoMan felt that, as his operator was a young child, a personal bond would be more appropriate in this case.

"Chaud," his operator replied. "My name is Chaud. I'm . . . I guess I'm your operator, now."

"Yes," ProtoMan agreed, "you are. And as my operator, I will be here for you. So, if there is anything you need - anything at all - do not hesitate to ask."

"In that case . . ."

His operator had a request already? This was going better than he had hoped.

"Could . . . I just wanted to ask . . . There's just one thing I want right now," his operator said, almost stammered.

"What is it?" ProtoMan asked, as kindly as he could. The child had recently experienced the loss of his mother and was likely still grieving, so he would need to make sure to cater to any wish his operator had. That was, after all, his job as a Navi.

"I just want a friend," his operator said very quietly.

ProtoMan, mainly out of surprise, didn't respond.

"I-I know Navis aren't supposed to . . . I mean, you're not . . . But I just . . . I don't wanna be alone anymore," his operator whispered. His voice grew a little louder, as though he had come closer - or as though he had brought the PET closer. ProtoMan almost forgot that he was inside of one now, not just an isolated Area in a vast network.

"You are not alone," ProtoMan said, slightly puzzled. "There are people around you almost all hours of the day, from what-"

"That's not what I mean!" his operator cried.

ProtoMan had been about to say 'from what my creator has told me', but now he was even more confused. How could his operator be alone if he was in the company of others? It didn't make any sense.

"I'm afraid I don't understand, Master Chaud," ProtoMan said.

"Chaud," his operator corrected him. "Just call me Chaud. I'm . . . I just . . ."

This was going badly, now. How had ProtoMan messed up? He had upset his new operator, did that mean he had failed his duty as a NetNavi? Would he be deleted for his failure?

"No one cares about me," his operator mumbled. "Not really. There's people everywhere, but no one actually cares. They just look at me like I'm not there, and no one pays any attention to me."

ProtoMan, who had no such similar experiences, could not understand. Was this perhaps what his operator meant by being alone? As a child, his vocabulary would not be as complete as an adult, and so he may have been attempting to describe how he felt with the few words he knew. Being ignored would, in the mind of a five-year-old human, be the same as being alone.

"I am certain, if you asked, that people would speak with you if that is what you want," ProtoMan suggested.

"Not like that," his operator sighed. "You . . . you don't get it, do you? No one _cares_ about me, not even Father. Not since Mother died . . ."

ProtoMan was under the impression that his creator was proud of his operator, but what his operator was saying completely contradicted that.

Or perhaps 'proud of' was not the same as 'care about'. In fact, the last time he had heard his creator's voice, he had not seemed as interested in his son as he had been before his wife had died so suddenly.

Maybe this was what his operator wanted from him.

"You want _me_ to care about you, to be your friend," he said.

"Could you?" his operator asked, almost timidly.

ProtoMan felt something rise inside him - some strange feeling that the emotion emulator program did not exactly recognise.

He was feeling . . . protective.

Protective of this young, lonely child who just wanted a friend.

And if that was what his operator wanted, then ProtoMan would do his best to ensure this child's happiness.

"Of course," he said. "If that is what you wish, I will be your friend."

"Thank you," his operator whispered, sounding slightly happier.

His operator - Chaud, he reminded himself, because that was what the child wanted to be called - spoke to him often after that. The conversations that ProtoMan had with Chaud were vastly different to those he used to have with his creator, and he found himself enjoying these new conversations more than previous ones.

Chaud would speak to him about almost anything. From his schoolwork to the day's events, they discussed and conversed about whatever Chaud felt like talking about. Sometimes ProtoMan would very carefully initiate conversations of his own, and once it became clear that Chaud did not mind this, he did it more and more.

But speaking was all he could do as a NetNavi. His blindness limited him in that regard, as he was unable to read his operator's emails for him, nor could he assist Chaud when downloading school textbooks. If Chaud did not understand something and was unable to describe it, ProtoMan was unable to help him. This was not ideal for a Navi, but although ProtoMan constantly worried that his operator would grow tired of a Navi who was unable to assist him properly, Chaud never once complained.

He did occasionally try to encourage ProtoMan to explore his surroundings, but after one disastrous attempt - in which ProtoMan accidentally broke through the PET's firewalls and ended up destroying an important program in the Blaze mansion's network - they realised that it was probably not the best idea.

But Chaud did not complain about that, either. He did initially panic about the destroyed program, fearing his father's wrath if he found out, but he had managed to fix it - and afterwards found the entire situation highly amusing.

Nor did Chaud complain about ProtoMan when his classmates began to tease and bully him for having such a 'useless' Navi. He defended ProtoMan and stated that he would not want any other Navi even if he had the option, a gesture which made ProtoMan feel strangely warm (his emotion emulator program had began to evolve, for lack of better terms, ever since he had met this lonely child).

The bullies were silenced when Chaud and ProtoMan, despite being 'useless', became the top NetBattlers in their class. The school Chaud attended was an academy for prodigy NetBattlers, something which his operator very clearly was, and together they destroyed any competition that stood in their way.

And along with being a gifted NetBattler, Chaud was also a genius.

Why? Because, at nine years old, ProtoMan's operator was finally able to give him the gift of sight.

 **OOOOOO**

BOOM have some fluffy friendship between our favourite egghead and his blind NetNavi.

Yup, Chaud gets bullied in school - it kinda makes sense that he would get bullied, since children are assholes and a kid with a NetNavi who can't see (and is therefore defined as 'useless' by like 90% of the population) is the perfect victim. But of course Chaud doesn't care, and he stomps out every single one of them by becoming the best NetBattler in his class and probably the entire school with his blind Navi.

I'll definitely be writing a chapter two about how Chaud and ProtoMan NatBattle while ProtoMan's blind, but for now we're moving on to other things.

The next 'part', for simplicity's sake more than anything else, will feature Chaud's POV and will also show you guys how he gives ProtoMan the gift of sight. I originally was gonna move on to other headcanons, but then I realised that you'd all probably be wondering how ProtoMan could suddenly see, so I've decided to move up that one-shot to the fourth chapter rather than some other random chapter.

So, anyway, this is the first 'part' of _System Error_. The next one will be titled _Child Genius_ and is only a single chapter, like I said, and you all know what's coming anyway so whatever.

Read and review!


	4. Child Genius

Hi there, and welcome to . . .

Why do I always start off these things with 'hi there and welcome to'? God I'm an absolute dumbass.

Anyway, this is _Child Genius_ , as told from the POV of our favourite socially inept egghead.

At this point in this current 'part', Chaud is nine years old. I think maybe I'll just kinda throw in how old he is/what point in the timeline each 'part' is in during these ANs so you guys can understand where and when each of these things take place.

 _Proto-13_ focused on ProtoMan's origins, so it takes place before Chaud is born and after he's born - by the time he and ProtoMan meet, Chaud is five. In _Child Genius_ , he's nine.

Oh, also, Cin wanted me to tell you guys the tag to look through her blog so you can find the blind headcanon post easier - megaman nt warrior. There you go, hope that helps!

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Chaud was far from a genius.

Most people who met him, he knew, would describe him as such, but he didn't consider himself any more intelligent than anyone else - he just understood things a little more quicker and easier than most kids his age did. That didn't mark him as a genius in his eyes, but of course it wasn't his opinion that mattered, was it?

But anyway, he wasn't a genius. He honestly wasn't, but the way some people treated him . . . If he'd cared enough, he probably would've told them to get lost, because he didn't care about their stupid opinions.

The only person whose opinion he actually did care about was that of his Navi, ProtoMan, the strange blind NetNavi his father had given him mere days after the untimely death of his mother. Most people would probably get rid of a Navi that couldn't do anything other than sit there and talk (and occasionally break things, but that was hardly ProtoMan's fault), but Chaud wasn't 'most people'.

Besides, ProtoMan was the best Navi ever and no one was going to convince him otherwise. They were the best in their class - and probably the entire school - at NetBattling, and the fact that ProtoMan was completely blind didn't matter one bit. In fact it actually sort of helped.

But ProtoMan . . . was strange. And not because he couldn't see, but because he kept apologising for the smallest of mistakes - the most common thing he apologised for was the fact that he couldn't do anything a normal NetNavi could do (such as simple things like read Chaud his emails or type any emails up himself).

So he kept apologising for being blind, basically.

It wasn't his fault he was blind, far from it. The way ProtoMan had explained it, there was some sort of glitch in his systems that made him blind, and he had no control over it and therefore no need to take any of the blame. Yet he did anyway, because that was just ProtoMan's nature.

Chaud wanted to help him. He wasn't a genius, yes, but he understood things - and he could understand programming.

He had, after all, figured out how to customise ProtoMan's systems to give him fully-functional combat capabilities. Helping his Navi with something like this should be pretty easy in comparison, right?

Wrong.

The glitch that made his odd Navi blind was so deep in his systems that any attempt to remove it, or even tamper with it, could delete him completely. Chaud checked again and again while ProtoMan was shut down or in sleep mode, just to see if there was any way he could fix it, but he couldn't figure it out. His Navi's systems were so weird and a lot different to the Navi systems that the books told him about.

Which, okay, that actually made sense. ProtoMan wasn't a normal Navi, of course he'd have weird systems.

It made Chaud's job harder, but the nine-year-old was determined to do something to help ProtoMan. The Navi had done so much for him (ProtoMan would disagree, but to Chaud this was the truth) that he just had to do something in return.

Helping his blind NetNavi to see was the best thing he could do, if only he could figure out how to make it happen.

He wracked his brains for weeks on end, trying to figure something out, but all the books on Navi customisation and creation couldn't help him, nor could multiple looks into ProtoMan's weird systems.

And then one day, while he was absentmindedly flipping through one of his school textbooks on Navi design, he finally got an idea.

He immediately got to work. ProtoMan asked what he was doing, but Chaud simply told him it was a secret - and ProtoMan left it at that. He was weirdly obedient, even more so than most of the other students' Navis, who were all newgen Navis (more advanced or 'human' Navis, in other words). Chaud was thankful for that weird obedience, because it meant he could work away and ProtoMan wouldn't pester him for an answer.

It took him almost an entire month, but he finally completed it and was able to give the final result of his work to ProtoMan.

"Okay, close your eyes," Chaud told his Navi.

ProtoMan looked a little confused. "May I ask why?" he asked. "I cannot see - closing my eyes would make no difference to me at all."

"I know," Chaud replied, "but humour me."

His Navi was clearly still uncertain about this, but he closed his eyes anyway.

Chaud tapped in a few commands into his PET, and then downloaded the thing he'd been working on.

"Okay, now open your eyes," he instructed ProtoMan.

"I'm afraid I still don't quite understand why-"

ProtoMan went very quiet all of a sudden.

The thing that Chaud had downloaded onto the PET was a new program - something he'd gotten the idea for from his textbooks. Operators, the book had said, could create programs to help customise their Navis, and not just for battle purposes, but for aesthetic purposes as well. Sort of like the new fashion chips that some companies were producing, except these programs weren't just chips, but able to be downloaded as full programs directly onto the PET and the actual Navi itself.

It was a helmet. A helmet with a black visor, and a colour scheme similar to ProtoMan's overall design.

Normal aesthetic programs wouldn't have taken a full month to create, but this wasn't exactly a normal aesthetic program.

" . . . Chaud," ProtoMan whispered, "what is this?"

"A helmet," Chaud replied, knowing full well that wasn't what ProtoMan was asking. But he didn't want to be the one to say it - he wanted to give that honour to ProtoMan himself.

"What type of helmet?" his Navi asked. He was turning his head slowly from side to side, and while the visor prevented Chaud from seeing most of his expression, it was plain to see that he was utterly stunned.

"One that fits you, and only you." Chaud decided to speed it up a little bit. "What do you normally see, ProtoMan?"

"Absolutely nothing, I am blind," ProtoMan answered automatically. "It is just darkness that I normally see."

"And what do you see now?"

"I . . ." ProtoMan looked at the digital ground he was standing on, and then lifted his head - looking, for the first time since they had met, directly at Chaud. "I must apologise, Chaud. I have no words to describe this. It is beyond anything I have ever . . ."

"It's okay," Chaud told him, a small smile beginning to tug at his lips. "Do you . . . Is there anything about this you don't understand? Anything I can tell you about that might help you with this?"

"How did you manage this?" ProtoMan immediately asked him. "I . . . I had thought the glitch in my system was impossible to fix, and yet . . . you've done it."

"I actually haven't," Chaud admitted. "If you were to take off that helmet, you'd be completely blind again."

"So . . . it is the helmet which allows me to . . . to see?" ProtoMan half-stumbled over the word 'see'. He'd never had to use that word for himself, but now he could, and Chaud couldn't help but feel proud about that.

"That's right. Well, sort of - it's actually the visor on the helmet that lets you see. It connects to your eyes and allows you to actually see what's around you instead of just hearing or feeling it. The helmet is mostly aesthetic, but it does kinda help with that other little glitch you told me about."

ProtoMan tilted his head. "The balance glitch?" he said. "How does this helmet help with that?"

"You know how your hair is normally just sort of flat?" Chaud tried to explain. "Like how a human's hair is?"

"You have described it to me on numerous occasions, yes," ProtoMan replied. "What does this have to do with the helmet - my helmet - and my balance glitch? If you do not mind my asking."

"I don't," Chaud said, just like he always did. "Feel your hair now. Or look at it, if you want to."

ProtoMan gave him a puzzled frown, but did as he was told. He reached behind his back and groped around for his hair, and then made a surprised sound.

"It feels different," he said. "Less flat, and more . . . I don't wish to offend you . . ."

"It's fine."

"It feels almost like a tail, or a scarf of some sort," ProtoMan described. "Is that what my helmet has done?"

"Yes," Chaud said. "Your hair now acts as a sort of . . . counterbalance, for lack of better terms. It's like how a cat's tail helps it to balance."

"You have created a program that supports and fixes the errors in my systems," ProtoMan said, in an awed tone. "I . . . I have no idea what to say. I cannot express my gratitude enough . . ."

Chaud smiled properly now, as ProtoMan - for the first time in his entire life (or whatever the Navi equivalent was) - looked around properly. After several moments of silence, ProtoMan turned his attention to something else entirely.

"May I ask more questions?" ProtoMan wondered.

"Fire away," Chaud said.

"What colour is this?" his Navi asked, gesturing to his body and the main colour of his design. "And this one, also. This too - and that one." He was gesturing all over, pointing at different colours.

"Your main colour is red," Chaud told him, now very amused with how fascinated ProtoMan was with all this. "That's the colour of your gloves, boots, vest and helmet."

ProtoMan lifted a hand and studied it curiously. "Red," he echoed. "I like that word very much."

"And your hand - that colour's called black," Chaud went on, allowing ProtoMan to examine himself. "The ring around your NaviMark is called gold."

"And this one?" ProtoMan asked, holding up the NaviMark on the back of his hand and pointing to the white part of the Mark.

"That's white," Chaud said.

"What about this . . ." ProtoMan trailed off, a hand running over the colour between the black stripes on his bodysuit. "I am uncertain as to what this is called, but what is this colour? It is dark, but it cannot be black, can it? It is not the same."

"That one's called purple," Chaud explained. "And that pattern is called 'stripes'. You have black stripes on your bodysuit, which is purple. If you want, I can download a mirror program so you can see yourself properly - and have a look at your helmet, too."

"Could you?" ProtoMan seemed very eager, so Chaud downloaded the mirror program quickly and went quiet so his Navi could examine himself properly.

Several moments passed before ProtoMan spoke again.

"I have white hair," he said almost wondrously. "And my helmet looks . . . l-looks . . ."

"ProtoMan?" Chaud asked, suddenly worried. He'd never heard ProtoMan stammer before. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, Chaud," ProtoMan replied, turning to face him with an actual smile on his face. "I have never been more okay. I am . . . I am happy. You have given me the gift of sight. I can _see_. I . . . thank you. You truly are a genius."

Chaud still didn't consider himself a genius, but for his Navi, he was perfectly fine with being labelled as one.

 **OOOOOO**

And so ends the one-chapter 'part', _Child Genius_. This is basically just me showing you guys how ProtoMan reacts to seeing for the first time (he's basically 'kid in a candy store' but more sedated because this is ProtoMan we're talking about, after all).

How did you like the little Q&A thing there?

ProtoMan, being a blind Navi and all, probably wouldn't have any need to bother with knowing the names of colours or patterns, so when he finally gets the gift of sight, of course he'll ask a million and one questions about them. I did want to add a little scene in which he reacts to seeing Chaud for the first time, but I think that'd be a bit too out of character for everyone involved.

However, I will say this - the very first thing that ProtoMan sees is Chaud. It probably wasn't obvious here, since it's from Chaud's POV rather than ProtoMan's, but yeah that's what happens in this fancanon.

Anywho, the next part will be called _Black and White_ , and will feature Chaud and ProtoMan using Cross Fusion for the first time. No, not during the episode with Darkloid DesertMan, but in tests at SciLab with Dr. Hikari and Famous doing their scientist-things. Obviously they aren't just gonna send Chaud out to do Cross Fusion for the very first time in an actual real fight (unlike Lan who just sort of does it because he's the protagonist and logic does not apply to him), so a few tests are, in my headcanon at least, necessary to see whether or not Chaud and ProtoMan can actually handle it.

Obviously they can, but _Black and White_ features Cross Fusion tests. It'll become pretty clear why the 'part' is called _Black and White_ when the Cross Fusion actually happens, don't worry.

Read and review!


	5. Black and White, Part 1

Like I said in the previous chapter, this 'part' is called _Black and White_ , and features Chaud and ProtoMan Cross Fusing in SciLab.

Now, I don't think anyone's actually entirely able to agree on Chaud's age - he's either eleven or twelve, depending on preference and/or universe. In the manga at least we get confirmation that he's eleven, but a lot of people think that in the games/anime, he's twelve.

I'm going by that purely because I can, and it kinda makes more sense for the timeline in this fic.

So, Chaud is twelve in this. That makes him eleven in the original anime series and twelve during the later series. But anyway, Cross Fusion.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"Activate the dimensional area." Dr. Hikari's voice rang out across the testing lab.

Famous, his assistant for today (although he usually worked at Net Police HQ), flipped a switch. "Dimensional area, activated!" he reported.

The glass cube that was SciLab's experimental dimensional area shimmered, and a multi-coloured hue came over the glass. This wasn't Chaud's first time being in a dimensional area, but this was his first time attempting the very same thing that Lan and MegaMan had achieved with flying colours.

Cross Fusion, the union between operator and Navi.

"That is very colourful," ProtoMan commented, looking out at the dimensional area from Chaud's PET.

"Don't freak out," Chaud, amused, warned him.

"I will try not to."

"Okay, Chaud!" Dr. Hikari called from the control desk. "Download the Synchro chip!"

 _Here we go,_ Chaud thought, mentally bracing himself.

He held out his PET - ProtoMan looked out at him from the screen, offering his usual silent support - and held the Synchro chip above the download slot. For a moment he hesitated, uncertain about this new power being offered to him, but a glance at his Navi put his mind at rest.

"Synchro chip, download!" he announced.

As soon as the chip was downloaded into the PET, it began to glow white. The glow grew and engulfed Chaud in the process. He could feel his body changing as Cross Fusion took its hold, and panic flashed through his mind. But then an warm feeling overcame the panic, and it didn't take a genius to realise that ProtoMan was using this new power to assist his operator.

Chaud had closed his eyes almost reflexively upon downloading the Synchro chip, but now he carefully opened one eye just a tiny bit to see - and a moment later, both eyes flew open in shock.

Everything seemed to be working just fine - he'd Cross Fused, that much was certain, because he didn't feel exactly . . . human anymore. His appearance had changed, he looked like a weirdly customised version of ProtoMan, and judging by the weight at the back of his head, he also had ProtoMan's hair.

There was just one problem.

"Why is everything black and white?" he asked quietly.

 _[Er . . .]_ ProtoMan's voice, which seemed to come right from inside his own head, was uncharacteristically hesitant. He was just as confused as Chaud.

"All good?" Dr. Hikari asked.

"Ah - yes," Chaud replied. Dr. Hikari hadn't heard him speaking before, and Chaud had no idea why he'd just automatically lied.

ProtoMan was wondering the same thing. He didn't say it, but this new power allowed them to feel what the other was feeling, to know what they were thinking. A true union between human and NetNavi.

"Alright then," Dr. Hikari said, nodding to Famous, "let's start up the training program. We'll start with some simple targets for now, viruses can come later. I want you to try and hit specific colours."

"Yes, Dr. Hikari," Chaud said.

Specific colours? He couldn't see _any_ colours right now. And he had no idea why.

Wait, Dr. Hikari wanted him to hit targets. Did he mean hit targets with his fists, or with weapons? How did Chaud make that happen?

 _[Just think about it,]_ ProtoMan advised him. _[That's how it usually works for a NetNavi, I assume it should be the same for us - although . . . I do have one concern about this.]_

"And that is?" Chaud asked, lowering his voice so Dr. Hikari wouldn't hear. He wasn't sure if anyone else could hear ProtoMan's voice or if it was just him.

 _[How are we going to hit specific colours if we don't know what the colours are?]_

That . . . was a valid point.

But before Chaud could try to think of a solution (which would probably involve informing Dr. Hikari that everything had gone black and white for some reason), the training program started up. Floating ring targets materialised around Chaud and began to rotate around him slowly. He looked at each one, but aside from some being slightly darker in tone than others, he couldn't tell the difference between any of them.

"I want you to hit the red ones only," Dr. Hikari instructed him. "Lan and MegaMan managed this perfectly, so you should be able to as well."

Oh, yes, of course Lan and MegaMan could do it perfectly. They did everything perfectly, didn't they?

 _[Please try not to be so bitter, they have been doing this longer than we have,]_ ProtoMan said soothingly.

"Hm," Chaud said, watching the ring targets float around him. " . . . Any suggestions? I can't tell which ones are supposed to be red."

 _[Ah . . . I believe I may have an idea,]_ ProtoMan replied. _[It seems that there are only two different colours of targets - assuming the second colour is blue, that would mean the lighter tone is red.]_

"Are you sure about that?" Chaud asked him.

 _[Blue is a heavier colour than red.]_

"What does that even mean?"

"Chaud? Is there something wrong?" Dr. Hikari called, sounding a little worried.

He exchanged a glance with Famous, and Chaud, half-afraid that they would cancel the dimensional area because he was stalling, straightened up and responded as confidently as he could.

"No, everything's just fine, Dr. Hikari," he said. "Just discussing tactics with ProtoMan."

That was a feeble excuse and Chaud could feel ProtoMan's mild exasperation, but apparently it was good enough for the two scientists.

"Alright then. Remember, the red ones!" Dr. Hikari told him.

"Got it." Chaud sighed and muttered under his breath to ProtoMan. "Yup, this is by far the weirdest thing that's ever happened to us. Alright, how do I activate a Proto Sword?"

 _[Just think about it,]_ ProtoMan repeated his earlier instruction.

That was extremely helpful.

Chaud tried thinking about it, but he'd never personally used Proto Sword before (what human would be able to, without Cross Fusion?), and even after trying to think about activating it rather than simply using it, he still couldn't figure it out. ProtoMan, sensing his growing frustration, lended a hand and guided Chaud through the process.

With both of them working on it, it was far easier. Chaud's right forearm and hand suddenly vanished, as if they had never been there, and were replaced by a Proto Sword. He stared at it, turning it this way and that in mildly disgusted fascination.

"My arm is a sword," he commented. "My arm . . . is an actual sword."

 _[Are you alright?]_ ProtoMan asked him worriedly. _[You seem to be . . . freaking out.]_

"My arm is a sword and you expect me to perfectly fine with this first time around?" Chaud wondered incredulously.

 _[You have a point, though this sort of thing is perfectly normal for me,]_ ProtoMan reminded him. _[If you truly wish to fight with Cross Fusion - and I know you do, I can feel your determination - then you will need to get used to this.]_

"So basically, suck it up and deal with it?" Chaud summarised.

 _[Perhaps not as blunt as that, but . . . yes.]_

"Okay. Okay, I can do this. My arm's a sword, this is going to be my new normal," Chaud said to himself. "Do I just swing it, or . . .?"

 _[Think of it as a very sharp slap,]_ ProtoMan said. _[We can work on proper techniques later, but for now just . . . sharp slap.]_

"You come out with some absolute gold sometimes, you know that?" Chaud almost laughed.

He stepped forward, and was mildly surprised to find that it just felt like walking normally. Chaud didn't know what he'd been expecting, but he was somewhat calmed by this. If he could just keep his head and try to copy what he'd seen ProtoMan do (maybe not exactly, but he knew his Navi's movements well enough to emulate them somewhat competently), he should be able to figure out Cross Fusion. And with ProtoMan's help, he could get this down faster.

Chaud took a deep breath, and lifted his head to look at the moving targets. He had to concentrate fairly hard to see the different tones, but after figuring out which ones were which, he crouched and copied a fighting stance he'd seen ProtoMan do countless times.

 _[Are you ready?]_ ProtoMan asked.

"Definitely," Chaud replied.

And together they lept into battle.

 **OOOOOO**

Next chapter we get to see the results of Chaud's first ever Cross Fusion with ProtoMan.

And now you can all see exactly why it's called _Black and White_ \- because Chaud, when using Cross Fusion, is completely colourblind.

This is one of the headcanons that me and Cin came up with together when expanding on her 'ProtoMan is blind' thing. I wondered whether or not ProtoMan's glitches would affect Chaud at all during Cross Fusion, and we snowballed some ideas before deciding that Chaud would be colourblind as a result of ProtoMan being blind without his helmet. There's all sorts of problems this can cause, one of which being the fact that Chaud can't really tell the difference between the coloured targets, but there's also some other plots as a result of being colourblind that I'm gonna write for you guys.

But anyway, have Chaud wondering what the hell he's supposed to do during Cross Fusion (because he's not Lan, he can't just have protagonist powers of knows-exactly-what-to-do-instantly, after all) and ProtoMan trying his best to help out.

Read and review!


	6. Black and White, Part 2

In this chapter we get to find out the results of the training that the colourblind Cross Fused Chaud and ProtoMan went through.

I'm enjoying writing this by the way. It's both hilarious and mildly sad. Somehow.

Don't ask how, that's just how feels work - they simultaneously make you laugh and rip out your heart. It works like that and no one will convince me otherwise because I have plenty of evidence to back up my bullshit.

Anywho, chapter. This is gonna be the last chapter of _Black and White_ , so it's only a two-chapter 'part', unlike _Proto-13_. Most of these 'parts' will probably end up being one or two chapters long, but some may end up being three or maybe more depending on content and/or plot.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Famous was completely speechless, and Dr. Hikari was openly gaping.

The dimensional area deactivated and Chaud and ProtoMan automatically Crossed Out with it. Chaud caught his PET before it fell to the ground, and caught his Navi's eye. They shared a small smile, and then Chaud turned his attention to the two scientists.

"What was that?" Dr. Hikari asked, shocked. And not in a good way.

Chaud lost his smile and blinked.

"Er . . ." What had gone wrong now? "I'm not sure what you mean, Dr. Hikari."

"You . . . you missed _every single one_ of the red targets," Dr. Hikari informed him.

Oh. Oh, that was . . . Ah.

"You hit all of the green ones," Famous told Chaud. "I . . . We would have said something, but we were just . . . we were too shocked."

"You said the other colour was blue," Chaud hissed to ProtoMan, who looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"I . . . T-that's how these training things usually work, I assumed . . ." ProtoMan said hesitantly. "The usual colour is red and blue. I had not considered green to be an option . . . in which case we should have been attacking the darker tone. I . . . I apologise. I will make up for this mistake somehow."

"No, it's not your fault," Chaud sighed, shaking his head. "Neither of us knew which colour was which, it's my responsibility as much as it is yours."

"Yes, sir," ProtoMan replied quietly.

The glass cube opened up, allowing Chaud to walk out and meet Dr. Hikari and Famous in the middle of the room. He couldn't meet their eyes out of sheer shame, so Chaud kept his gaze fixed on the floor.

"Chaud," Dr. Hikari began carefully, "is there something you're not telling me?"

"No, sir," Chaud said.

Dr. Hikari and Famous exchanged a worried glance, not that Chaud saw this. He was too afraid of looking up and seeing the disappointment he assumed would be on their faces due to his and ProtoMan's failure. Bad enough that there was clearly something wrong with their Cross Fusion, and now there was this blunder. Imagine missing _every single target_ , and the two scientists in front of him had no idea why he'd screwed up so badly.

"I'm sorry," Chaud said to the floor. "I . . . I'm not sure what to . . ." He bit his lip and held out the Synchro chip. "Here."

"What are you doing?" Dr. Hikari asked, confused.

Chaud forced himself to look up and meet the doctor's eyes. "Clearly ProtoMan and I are not cut out to use Cross Fusion," he said clearly, making sure there was no room for misunderstandings. "I . . . I don't know what went wrong-" That was a complete lie, he knew exactly what had gone wrong, and he had no idea why he wasn't telling the truth. "-but if I can't do it properly, then I shouldn't do it at all. That . . . that's what my . . . So I'll give you the Synchro chip back."

"You're giving up?" Famous asked incredulously. "After just one try?"

"Did . . . didn't you hear what I . . .?" Chaud trailed off when he caught Dr. Hikari's expression.

He couldn't figure out if that expression was shock or anger, but Chaud always assumed the worst and decided it was anger. For one horrifying moment he honestly thought Dr. Hikari was about to strike him for this - whether the failed training exercise or the ungratefulness he was showing in giving back the Synchro chip - and he unconsciously took a step back to try and put some distance between them.

Dr. Hikari immediately schooled his expression into something less intense.

"That Synchro chip is a gift," he explained to Chaud. "You and ProtoMan are able to achieve Cross Fusion - plus your Synchro rate is higher than Lan and MegaMan's, and if that doesn't qualify you, then I don't know what does. You can't give up on this just because you failed once."

"But . . . but Lan . . ."

'Lan did it perfectly the first time he ever Cross Fused' was what Chaud wanted to say, but for some reason the words just wouldn't come out. Maybe it was the fact that he would be essentially complaining about his rival/maybe-friend to Dr. Hikari, who was Lan's _father_ , but whatever it was, Chaud couldn't bring himself to say it out loud.

He didn't need to, though. It seemed Dr. Hikari was psychic.

"Lan's situation was a lot different to yours," he said gently. "We were in the middle of a crisis, and he did make a few blunders of his own. He still does, actually - did you know he accidentally forced a Cross Out because he was arguing with MegaMan?"

Chaud blinked. He hadn't known that, actually. He'd just assumed Lan had known what he was doing right from the start.

"One little mistake isn't going to mark you as useless, you know," Dr. Hikari went on. "I heard from Lan that you train and train to make sure you and ProtoMan are the best at whatever you do, so why give up so easily on Cross Fusion?"

 _Because I can't see properly_ , Chaud thought. He didn't dare say that out loud either, and instead dropped his gaze to the floor once more.

Dr. Hikari took that as a sign of admission.

"It doesn't matter that you missed the targets," Dr. Hikari said, smiling. "That's why it's called training. If you mess up, you can try again and again until you get it right, or figure out how to make it work."

"Besides, I think it's worth mentioning," Famous added cheerfully, "that you _did_ manage to get all the targets, even if they were the wrong colour. That's something to build on, at least!"

"Really?" Chaud asked, looking up hopefully.

"Really," Dr. Hikari agreed. "It just takes some practise, is all. Do you want to try again?"

Chaud almost agreed instantly, but he paused, and then glanced at the screen of his PET where ProtoMan was watching the scene silently. There was a small smile on his face.

"What do you think?" Chaud asked him. "Wanna go again?"

"I would be honoured," ProtoMan replied truthfully.

They shared a nod, and Chaud looked back at Dr. Hikari.

"We're ready at any time," he told Dr. Hikari, determined to get it right this time.

 **OOOOOO**

This one's considerably shorter than the previous chapters so far, but then less actually happens in this aside from Chaud and ProtoMan finding out that they screwed up very badly.

But anyway, have some scared Chaud trying to make amends when it's not even remotely necessary, and Dr. Hikari's father instincts kicking in because dear god does this poor kid not have any real parental figures in his life. And the one parental figure he does have is a piece of shit who doesn't deserve such an amazing son.

Moving on, here's what Chaud was gonna say when he said if he couldn't do something right, he shouldn't do it at all - 'that's what my father says'.

In case it's not clear, I have an extremely low opinion of Shuseki, and so does Cin.

Be prepared for some child abuse in later 'parts', although you can probably tell what's going on judging by how Chaud reacted to Dr. Hikari looking angry (he wasn't angry, he was just really shocked, but it looked like anger to Chaud, who promptly freaked the fuck out).

Next 'part' . . . hm . . . well, I'm not entirely sure what the title will be at the moment, but it's about the zoo. Not the animal farm that IPC opened during _Stream_ , but an actual zoo, and you know what I'll explain more in the AN of that chapter. I'm uncertain as to whether or not it'll last more than one chapter, so be prepared for anything. And also be prepared for a very excited ProtoMan.

Read and review!


	7. Rainbow Zoo, Part 1

Okay so I've decided that the zoo 'part' is gonna be called _Rainbow Zoo_ for absolutely no reason other than the fact that it amuses me and it also kinda describes exactly what's going to happen in this 'part'.

And what is gonna happen in this 'part', you ask?

Well, the basic answer is - Chaud takes ProtoMan to the zoo and shows him the different animals there, and ProtoMan gets very excited about certain animals.

Chaud's nine years old in this, for everyone's information. This is set a few weeks after he gives ProtoMan the helmet that lets him see things. I'd also like to inform everyone that ProtoMan is most likely about to become very OOC at some point, mainly because of the whole 'he gets really excited' thing. And I'd also like to remind everyone that wants to complain about the OOCness that this ProtoMan has only just discovered the wonders of sight and is still in the 'oh my god the world is amazing and I love it' phase.

I'm also writing this 'part' purely because excited ProtoMan just seems really adorable to me, and Chaud gets to giggle at his crazy blind Navi because why not.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"ProtoMan, what's the plural form of tanuki?"

"Tanuki or tanukis, either is acceptable."

"Thank you."

ProtoMan tilted his head and looked - he was still marvelling at this, and he knew he would never get tired of it - at his operator through the screen. Chaud was working on a report of some kind for school, but ProtoMan was uncertain as to what type of report it was.

Apparently it had something to do with tanuki, otherwise known as the Japanese racoon dog.

"May I ask what this report is about, exactly?" ProtoMan asked. Chaud did not mind him asking questions like this, so he was fine with asking.

"Tanukis and their habitats," Chaud replied, still mostly focused on his report. "It's for . . . biology, I think."

"You think?"

"No, definitely biology," his operator said, more confidently now. "Miss Riley gave us assignments for our biology reports, the habitats of different animals, and mine's about tanukis."

"Ah," ProtoMan said. "Of course. Is there anything specific about tanuki you wish to know? I could go on the internet and look up some information for you, if you would like."

Chaud paused in his typing, and gave ProtoMan an amused look. "You've been offering to do this kinda stuff for me ever since you got your helmet," he commented. "You really like being able to see, huh?"

"Of course," ProtoMan answered, unable to restrain a smile. "I doubt that I will ever tire of sight. I am . . . I believe the emotion is called 'excited'."

His operator giggled a little, and went back to typing his report on tanuki.

ProtoMan busied himself with doing some maintenance with Chaud's files on the PET - not that it was necessary, his operator had grown used to sorting the files on his own and so the files were all in order (or as much order as a very intelligent nine-year-old could manage), leaving ProtoMan with not much to do really. He looked through them in case there was anything that could be deleted to make room for newer files, though.

Several minutes later, he was distracted by Chaud making a frustrated sound and glanced up at the screen to see him leaning back and pouting - actually pouting - at his computer screen.

" . . . Chaud?" ProtoMan asked. "Is everything alright?"

"No," Chaud muttered. ProtoMan would have been worried about the answer had Chaud's tone not been so sulky. "This isn't working."

"What isn't?"

"This!" Chaud exclaimed, gesturing wildly to his computer. "It . . . I can't . . . This report is stupid."

"Er . . . I am afraid I still do not understand," ProtoMan admitted. "Why is the report stupid?"

"Because it won't work. I can't make it work."

It took ProtoMan a moment to work out what Chaud was trying to say. As with most children, Chaud grew less intelligible the more frustrated he was. Luckily, ProtoMan had grown used to Chaud's unique spin on this frustrated speech.

"Perhaps if you could word it differently, or come at the problem from a different perspective?" ProtoMan suggested lightly.

Chaud grunted and crossed his arms, glaring at his lap. Ah, and now they were in the silent sulking phase. ProtoMan hid a tiny, amused smile behind his hand.

" . . . This isn't working," Chaud repeated his earlier sentence. "But maybe . . . maybe it's because I don't get it."

"Could you explain what you mean, please?" ProtoMan asked.

Chaud looked at him. He seemed a little calmer now. "I mean, maybe it's because I'm only reading about tanukis. Most of the class is going to find the animals they've been assigned to make a report on. Maybe I should do that too."

"I do not believe tanuki live in this area of Japan," ProtoMan informed him somewhat reluctantly. "I have not heard of any that live in or near DenTech City, at least."

His operator frowned at him, and then turned back to his computer for several moments to contemplate that. ProtoMan waited, and was not disappointed.

"The zoo might have tanukis," Chaud said, brightening up. "And if I ask, they can tell me about them. Right?"

"That is correct," ProtoMan agreed, nodding. "The zookeepers would no doubt be more than happy to help you, if you ask politely."

"I'll ask nicely, don't worry," Chaud assured him. He saved the work he'd done on his report and switched his computer off, and then took his PET out of the charging station. "Where's the nearest zoo, ProtoMan?"

"ACDC Zoo is the nearest currently to our location," ProtoMan replied. "Would you like me to call a driver to take you there?"

"Is it within walking distance?"

"I believe so."

"Then I'll walk. It'll be more fun anyway," Chaud said. Still holding onto his PET with one hand, he grabbed his school bag. He shrugged into it a little awkwardly, and headed out.

ACDC Zoo was a fifteen-minute walk for a full-grown adult human, but for an undersized nine-year-old it was twice that time. Chaud didn't complain and ProtoMan didn't bother repeating his offer to call a driver for him, and they used the time it took to walk to the zoo to just talk casually. ProtoMan didn't know very much about zoos, except that they housed many different species of animals and even had a digital counterpart in the cyberworld for NetNavis (which was a recent addition as Navis had become even more advanced in the past four years since the two of them had met), so he was just as interested to go to the zoo as his operator was.

Half an hour after setting out, Chaud arrived at ACDC Zoo. There was a bit of trouble at the gates, because he was an unaccompanied minor (Navis apparently didn't count), but luckily ProtoMan was able to convince the zookeeper at the gates that his operator was mature enough to wander around on his own. Chaud quietly waiting for the situation to be resolved helped to reinforce this image, and he was allowed in.

"This place is really big," Chaud said quietly, pausing to look around the entrance.

It was a wide-open space and a few animal pens and cages were scattered around, and ProtoMan could see various paths leading off to, presumably, other animals. And there were lots of people around - mostly children with their parents, or couples on dates, and judging by the large group over there, a school trip or two.

"Perhaps you could tag along with them?" ProtoMan suggested, pointing at the large group of schoolchildren. "We do not only have to be here for tanuki, we can also look at other animals as well - and explore the zoo. If you wish to, that is."

"Um . . ." Chaud glanced uncertainly at the group of schoolchildren, and seemed to shrink away. "I don't . . . I wanna go alone."

ProtoMan translated that as 'large groups of people make me uncomfortable'. He knew why - all the bullying at his own school had forced him into isolation and had made him highly suspicious of large groups and anyone aside from ProtoMan being nice to him.

He wanted to tell his operator that it was fine, these children didn't know him and most likely wouldn't mind him tagging along, but he also didn't wish to upset Chaud by forcing him into situations where he was genuinely uncomfortable.

So he kept quiet, and instead allowed Chaud to jack him into the zoo's network so he could walk around in the digital version of the zoo. He downloaded a map so that neither of them would get lost, too.

"So . . . tanukis," Chaud said, after ProtoMan had brought up the map on the PET screen. "They're almost on the other side of the zoo."

"It appears so," ProtoMan commented, scanning the map to find the shortest route they could take. "If you would follow my directions, we can get to the tanukis first and then explore properly afterwards?"

"Sure, okay."

 **OOOOOO**

This turned out to be a two-chapter 'part' after all, but hey, I just wanna write some adorableness between these two.

Anywho, excited ProtoMan shows up in the next chapter, and we find out from the end of this one that Chaud's very wary of large groups of people because of all those asshole bullies from his school. Poor little baby's probably forgotten what kindness from anyone who isn't ProtoMan is like.

But don't worry, as you all know, he'll eventually find out - or remember, whatever. Lan and co. more or less force it down his throat, so it's fine.

Have fun with the next chapter, guys!

Read and review!


	8. Rainbow Zoo, Part 2

Here we are with the second chapter of _Rainbow Zoo_ , and we'll be getting straight into it because I wanna write adorableness.

These chapters are all fairly short . . . a lot shorter than what I normally write. The other fic I wrote, _The Undergound NetBattlers_ , had chapters that're two or three times longer than the longest chapter (which I think was the very first one at this point) in this fic.

Man, I like making short chapters, it means I can write scenes that're short and not have to worry about making it all seem way too abrupt. I can just write cute shit, too.

So, anyway, since we're still in the same 'part' as the previous chapter, Chaud is still an adorable socially awkward child genius, and ProtoMan is his recently-gifted-with-sight Navi.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

They found the tanuki easily enough, and Chaud - with some gentle encouragement from ProtoMan - managed to pluck up the courage to ask a nearby zookeeper for some help with his report. The zookeeper was more than happy to help, after gushing about how polite Chaud was of course. It seemed that a lot of grown humans were impressed by polite children, but why that was, ProtoMan did not know.

Once Chaud had enough information to write his report, they left the tanuki habitat and wandered around.

ProtoMan mostly just followed his operator's path in the cyberworld, but when they came across a large cage that looked like it was big enough to house two or three elephants comfortably (with room to spare), he paused curiously.

"Chaud," ProtoMan called, drawing his operator's attention, "what animal lives in this cage? I cannot see anything in the digital version, nor the real world one."

Chaud glanced at him, confused, and then turned his attention to the cage. It was far from being completely empty, although ProtoMan was certain that a lot of jungle-like plants did not count as animals.

"Does it have a sign?" Chaud wondered, looking around for one.

ProtoMan also looked for one - in his confusion he may have missed it - and spotted one just at the far right of the digital cage.

'Parrots', it said, with a brief description and a small picture of the animal in question.

He did not know what a parrot was, but apparently this cage was not empty, otherwise the sign would have said so. Perhaps the digital program versions of these parrots were hiding, emulating the parrots in the real world? Most of the animal programs that ProtoMan had seen so far did exactly that, mimicking their real world counterparts almost perfectly.

"What is a parrot?" ProtoMan asked aloud.

"I think it's a bird," Chaud replied, now examining the real world sign that he had found not long after ProtoMan had found the cyber one. "I mean, it looks like a bird. But no bird I've ever seen looks like that . . ."

ProtoMan looked at the picture and had to hold back a gasp of sheer delight. This parrot, whatever it was, was incredibly colourful. According to the description on the sign, this digital cage held several programs emulating the real world parrots, and there were several different species of parrots. Scarlet Macaws, Sun Parakeets, Netfrican Greys, Dusky Lories . . . to name a few. The picture in the description showed the Scarlet Macaw, and ProtoMan immediately decided that he very much wanted to see one of these birds right now.

"Rainbow birds," he whispered, awed. "They're _rainbow birds_."

" . . . But I can't see any," Chaud said. ProtoMan tore his eyes away from the picture and the cage to see his operator standing on his tip-toes to try and see if he could spot one of the colourful parrots, but he was so small that it hardly made any difference. "Do you think they're all asleep?"

"It says that parrots are diurnal."

"What does that mean?"

"It is the opposite of nocturnal - they are awake during the day," ProtoMan explained. "Although it does say that some species are nocturnal. It depends on the species, I suppose."

"But then why can't we see any?"

"They may be hiding or resting in the plants," ProtoMan replied patiently, though he was wondering the same thing. He wished to see these colourful birds as well, he was feeling almost the same as he had done when Chaud had downloaded his helmet to allow him to see.

"You wanna see the parrots, kid?"

Both Navi and operator looked around at the voice - it was a human zookeeper, and she looked fairly friendly. Despite her gentle tone and kind expression, Chaud backed away ever so slightly, clutching his PET to his chest. ProtoMan only knew this because he could suddenly hear Chaud's heartbeat faintly through the screen that showed him the real world.

"I-I'm sorry," Chaud stammered. "I know they're probably asleep or something, I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright, it's fine," the zookeeper assured him. "They're just hiding in the back today, but if you want, I can see if I can get one or two to come over - just let me unlock the cage and wait there for a moment. Are there any species in particular you'd like to see?"

"U-um, I . . ." Chaud glanced at ProtoMan uncertainly.

"I wish to see the Scarlet Macaw," ProtoMan said. "If it is no trouble, of course."

"Sure, no problem, our Scarlets are the easiest to handle if I'm honest," the zookeeper admitted cheerfully. She took out a set of keys and fiddled with them for a moment, and then found the key she was looking for. "The animal program versions of the birds should come out as well once I find the real world birds, so both of you can see them properly. Any others? Or do you wanna be surprised?"

"I-I don't mind which ones you find," Chaud said quietly.

The zookeeped nodded, and unlocked the cage door to slip inside. She quickly closed it - just in case any of the parrots came flying out, ProtoMan supposed - and vanished into the plant life inside.

Chaud and ProtoMan waited quietly for a minute or two, and then the zookeeper came back with a Scarlet Macaw on one shoulder, a Dusky Lory on another, and a second Scarlet Macaw clinging onto her forearm. As she had said, the digital program versions of the same birds materialised in the cage in front of ProtoMan, and he immediately went closer to the cage to get a better look. The bird progams were sitting on branches that were just level with his line of sight and squawked when he came closer.

"Here we are," the zookeeper said happily, crouching down carefully so that Chaud could see the birds without having to crane his neck. "These guys are real friendly. I'm afraid visitors aren't allowed inside the cages, but you can go ahead and stroke them through the bars, if you want to - same goes for your Navi, too. Both of you be gentle, okay?"

"Okay," Chaud said, ProtoMan nodding his own agreement half-mindedly along with him.

He carefully reached out and put a hand through the bars of the cyberworld cage. The nearest Scarlet Macaw program leaned forward and allowed him to run a gentle hand down its back, and the Dusky Lory program to its left - ProtoMan's right - made a slightly indignant noise and ruffled its feathers as though it was offended that he had not chosen it to pet first.

ProtoMan laughed. He couldn't help it, he was . . . excited. Happy. He loved the colours of these birds, and he loved the fact that he could actually reach through the bars and stroke them - and judging by the quiet giggles coming from his operator, Chaud was also enjoying this.

Parrots, ProtoMan decided, were his favourite animal, and the Scarlet Macaw was his favourite parrot.

They spent so long at the parrot cage that several other birds appeared to see what all the fuss was about, many of them Scarlet Macaws, but several were different species that neither Chaud nor ProtoMan knew the names of. The zookeeper was more than happy to tell them all about the parrots and they ended up staying at the cage for almost an entire hour. But eventually, sadly, they had to leave - they couldn't spend the entire trip to the zoo with just the parrots, and they still had just over half of the zoo left to explore anyway.

Near the end of their trip, they found the reptile house, and ProtoMan discovered the existence of a reptile called a chameleon.

At first he had thought it was just another reptile, though a very strange-looking one, and almost turned away to look at a nearby boa constrictor. But then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the real world version of the chameleon changing colour.

"Chaud-the-chameleon-just-changed-colour!" ProtoMan yelped, speaking so quickly that he almost didn't understand himself.

Chaud stared at him blankly, trying to work out what he'd just said. ProtoMan, unable to contain his excitement, pointed at the chameleon tank - both the real world version and the digital version - and had to force himself to not hop up and down excitedly.

"The . . . chameleon?" Chaud glanced at the tank ProtoMan was pointing at, and then tilted his head. "Wait, wasn't that chameleon green a second ago?"

"Yes, and now it is yellow!" ProtoMan exclaimed. He bounced on the balls of his feet for a moment, but made himself stand still. "It- this- it appears that the chameleon is able to change its colour based on its mood. This is . . . amazing. I love it. _It can change its colour_."

"I didn't know animals could do that . . ." Chaud said, now looking at the real world chameleon with wide eyes. "That's pretty cool."

"Isn't it?" ProtoMan half-gushed. "This is almost as exciting as the parrots!"

He studied the program version of the chameleon and grinned when it changed colour again, this time to a shade of purple that was somewhat lighter than the colour of his bodysuit.

ProtoMan was so focused on the colour-changing chameleon that he never noticed Chaud glancing at him with a content smile.

 **OOOOOO**

That's the end of _Rainbow Zoo_ , and now you guys know why it's called that - because we get to see ProtoMan losing his mind at the rainbow-coloured birds and colour-changing chameleons.

The next 'part' . . . hmm . . . I'm not sure yet, but I'll be writing some stuff, so y'all can chill.

I'm not gonna abandon this as long as I'm in this fandom and talking to Cin, because me and her are the ones who basically come up with shit for this fic. Most of our headcanons I admit are a little bit traumatic for poor little Chaud, but this one is actually really nice.

It's basically 'ProtoMan loves colours and goes nuts when he sees anything remotely similar to a rainbow and he LOVES PARROTS AND CHAMELEONS'.

Read and review!


	9. Secret Tunnel

This 'part' is gonna be a single-chapter one, and it's name is _Secret Tunnel_. Why? Because it's a reference to something that very accurately describes exactly what's going to happen in this particular 'part'.

In case any of you don't get the reference, here's a little something to help.

Ahem.

 _SECRET TUNNEL._

 _SECRET TUNNEL._

 _THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN._

 _SECRET, SECRET, SECRET TUNNEL!_

 _Yeah._

Okay, who can guess what the title is referencing now?

Moving on, like the previous 'part', this one is less focused on angst and more on Chaud and ProtoMan doing random shit. There is just a touch of angst, but it's mostly implied, and I'll explain what it is after I write this 'part'. I'll do my best to entertain!

Oh, and Chaud is seven in this 'part', which means ProtoMan is back to being his old blind self instead of newly-gifted-with-sight. Just assume, from now on, that Chaud at eight years old and under means blind ProtoMan, and Chaud at nine years old and over means sighted ProtoMan. Unless I state otherwise, that is.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"Chaud? Chaud, what are you doing?"

"Trying to get a book."

" . . . It sounds as though you are climbing a tree."

Chaud paused, but didn't get down from the bookcase he was currently trying to climb up.

"Well . . . you're not entirely wrong," Chaud admitted. "I am climbing."

"But . . . you said you are attempting to get a book?" His Navi sounded very confused.

"Yes, but it's a book that's kinda high up, so I need to climb to get it," Chaud clarified.

"I . . . I still do not understand. Why not use a chair or something similar? Why climb?"

"I did use a chair, but I still couldn't reach it, so now I'm climbing."

"Oh. Well . . . please do not injure yourself. I have faith in your abilities to climb, but I wish for you to be careful all the same."

"I'll be careful, don't worry."

ProtoMan went back to being quiet, but it was more a worried silence now, rather than a confused one. Chaud wanted to explain what he was doing, but he wasn't really sure how to word it. If ProtoMan asked him, he'd try, but . . . well, he was focusing on climbing for now anyway.

"Why do you require a book that is high up?" ProtoMan asked after half a minute of silence.

"Because it looks interesting," Chaud explained. "Old, I mean. Doesn't look like anyone's touched it in years. I bet there's something cool in there, there always is in old books."

"Why not ask someone to get it down for you? There are plenty of servants around, perhaps you could-"

"I wanna do stuff myself."

"Ah, of course."

Chaud couldn't decide if his Navi was amused or still confused.

He'd almost reached the old book now. It was only a few shelves up, almost level with a tall adult's head, but to him it may as well have been a mountain. The chair he'd managed to drag over from the other side of the room didn't do much to lessen the climb, although it did provide him with something to break his fall if he slipped off. That wasn't a very comforting thought for a seven-year-old intent on getting an old book, but whatever.

Chaud stretched out a hand, keeping a firm grip on the half-empty shelf he was resting on, and just about managed to grab the bottom of the book. He pulled with all his might, but couldn't get it to come out, which puzzled him. He tried to loosen the book by moving the ones either side of it, but even that did nothing.

He was stumped for a moment. And then he remembered that he didn't _have_ to do everything on his own.

"ProtoMan, this book won't come out," he said. "I tried making it move from the bottom but it's stuck."

"Hm . . . perhaps there is something keeping it there? Why not try getting it out from the top instead?"

Chaud smiled, not that ProtoMan could see it, and climbed a little higher until he was level with the top of the shelf the old book was on. He got his fingers into the gap between the top of the book and the top of the shelf, and pulled.

The book slipped out, but not all the way. It got stuck halfway off the shelf, but before Chaud could try to force it out further, the entire bookcase suddenly began to rumble and shake. For anyone simply watching, it would have been just a gentle tremour, but for the child clinging onto it, it was practically an earthquake. He lost his grip and fell down, yelping as a few books came loose and landed on his head.

"Chaud!" ProtoMan shouted, sounding panicked. "What happened? Are you alright? Do you need any assistance? Chaud! Please answer me!"

"I-I'm fine," Chaud squeaked, rubbing his head where the books had hit him.

"What happened?" ProtoMan repeated one of his panicked questions a little more calmly.

"I dunno," Chaud said. He shook his head and looked up, then froze in shock.

The bookcase was sinking into the ground, slowly revealing what looked like dark passage that otherwise would have remained hidden behind it forever. He stared in stunned silence until the bookcase had vanished altogether.

" . . . Chaud?" ProtoMan called.

"There's a secret tunnel behind the bookcase," Chaud said blankly. "That old book must have been the trigger, or something."

"I . . . what?" His Navi sounded as stunned as Chaud felt.

"I have absolutely no idea," Chaud replied. He stood carefully, avoiding stepping on the books scattered around him, and took an uncertain step forward. "Do . . . do you think I should go in there?"

"What? No! Of course not! It was likely sealed up for a reason. I do not want you going into a place that is potentially dangerous."

"But it's been here for ages, and it technically wasn't sealed up, just hidden," Chaud argued, taking out his PET so he could look at his Navi on the screen. ProtoMan's blank eyes stared out at him, but there was a worried expression on his face, half-covered with long white hair as it was. "And if there was something dangerous in there, would it really be so easy to get into?"

"You climbed up half a bookcase to get at the trigger," ProtoMan pointed out, deadpan.

"Yes, but that's me - an adult would be able to get at that book easily."

ProtoMan was quiet as he considered Chaud's arguments.

"If . . . if you are certain that there is no danger," ProtoMan said slowly, "then perhaps it would be best to explore. But only if you promise to be very, very careful."

"I'll be careful, I promise," Chaud told him. Not mentioning the fact that climbing up a mountain of a bookcase was probably the most dangerous thing he'd done so far. "We can be like the explorers that I read about sometimes."

"I would hardly count as an explorer," ProtoMan said.

"Just because you can't see doesn't mean you can't be an explorer," Chaud reasoned. "Your hearing is way better than mine is, so you can tell me if you hear anything dangerous. Plus I can use the light from my PET to see where I'm going."

" . . . True," his blind Navi admitted quietly. He sighed and shook his head, an amused smile on his face. "You will go in even if I say 'no', so we may as well. Very well - onward to adventure, I suppose."

"You could say it with a bit more enthusiasm," Chaud pouted, walking into the darkness ahead.

"That was enthusiasm."

The tunnel walls around Chaud were wooden - which he had expected, given that he was currently walking through what he assumed were the walls of his own house. When he'd gotten a few steps into the tunnel, he heard a rumbling sound behind him and spun around just in time to see the bookcase coming back up and sealing off the exit.

"Even if I wanted to go back, I wouldn't be able to now," Chaud said to ProtoMan.

"Why not?"

"The bookcase just came back up and closed off the exit."

ProtoMan was stunned into silence for a moment, and then he buried his face in his hands with an exasperated sigh. "You will be the deletion of me," he muttered.

Chaud held back a giggle, and turned around again to begin exploring properly.

The tunnels were long and almost certainly cramped, or they would have been cramped had Chaud been fully-grown. He kept the light from his PET focused on the path ahead of him as he walked, occasionally making remarks to ProtoMan and describing the tunnel to him.

Eventually he came across a fork in the tunnel, and looked down both new paths curiously before deciding to pick a random one and go down it. He went down the left path and, halfway down the tunnel, spotted something in the wall to his right. It was some sort of hole but it was covered with some thin cloth or other, which still allowed him to see out of it.

He peered out and was surprised to see that he was looking into the kitchen. A few servants were bustling around, making preparations for dinner - his father's dinner, since Chaud had already eaten a while ago and his father always came back late anyway. It occured to Chaud that while he could see out of the hole, no one could see into it, otherwise they would have spotted him by now.

"I can see the kitchen," he told ProtoMan quietly.

"Really?" ProtoMan tilted his head. "Hm . . . that must mean these tunnels go all around the house, then. Perhaps there is a way to access them from every room? Or at the very least most of the rooms."

"Let's see if we can find them all," Chaud, excited, whispered. "This is really fun!"

He could hear the smile in his Navi's voice as he replied. "It is, yes."

Chaud found a panel that he could easily shift to go into the kitchen, but he decided to leave it alone for now and went on. He explored as much as he could and discovered that there were a few staircases in the tunnels, allowing him to get to different floors of the house without having to set foot in the actual house itself. He also found that he could look into any room of the house (though he didn't always find panels or passages into the rooms), and even found an access point in his own bedroom.

He made a note of it and decided to figure out how to get into the tunnels from his room if only because the idea of being able to get around the house without having to run into his father very much appealed to him.

By nightfall, he'd explored as much as he could, and resolved to make a map of the tunnels so he wouldn't end up lost the next time he went in. He'd also mark that map, and write down how to get into and out of the tunnels from any of the access points he'd found and also jot down where all the viewing holes were in each of the rooms. For that he'd need a map of every floor of the house, but he could get those easily enough.

This was going to be so much fun.

 **OOOOOO**

Okay, so, basically the headcanon for this 'part' is something like this - me and Cin were discussing something about the manga, and I wondered about that version of Chaud and whether or not he was the same as the game and anime version.

Basically, the manga Chaud never mentions his father (who doesn't show up even for a cameo), and it never gets mentioned where he lives. I wondered if that means he's some sort of street kid, and Cin mentioned that maybe he'd a rich kid who ran away from home (like James from _Pokemon_ ).

I got an idea from that and wondered if anime Chaud would sleep on the streets because he feels safer there than he does at home, but Cin said that his bedroom would probably be the one place in his own house that he'd actually feel safe, and somehow we both came to the conclusion that Chaud gets around his house via secret tunnels and passages and stuff.

And so _Secret Tunnel_ was born.

That's kind of the angst part of this - that Chaud doesn't feel safe in his own home and uses secret tunnels in order to get around, purely because he's so terrified of his own father that he'd rather wander around in the dark than have to run into him in the house. Or, well, mansion? I dunno, to Chaud it would be a house since he's used to it, so I'll just be referring to it as that.

But anyway, have some low-key sass from ProtoMan, and also a very adventurous Chaud.

Explorers indeed.

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	10. Exhaustion, Part 1

This 'part' is titled _Exhaustion_ , for reasons which will become very obvious very quickly, and I'm planning on writing two chapters for it.

I do have other ideas for this fic, some of which I can remember well enough and others all I need to do is ask Cin for some finer details, but one or two - such as this one - are complex enough that I felt the need to write down proper notes for the basic plot.

There's not much reason for me to tell you guys this, I just wanted to let you know that I'm putting a bit of effort into getting some actual structure for the story's various 'parts'.

Oh, and Chaud is twelve in this - it's actually set after _Beast_ , so I can write ProtoMan and any other Navis who may or may not show up (uncertain currently but I wanna write other Navis so assume others will show up) in their little hologram forms.

I love those little holograms, it makes conversations between humans and Navis a lot more engaging since there's not a screen in between them.

Anywho.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

The inside of Chaud's PET was utter chaos, and not because viruses had made any attempts to break through the firewalls installed into it, but because the one who normally kept it clean and in order was simply too busy and too worried to bother with cleaning up the mess of a cyberworld he was leaving behind.

Just add that to the list of things he needed to do, but ProtoMan's list was nowhere near as long or as demanding as his operator's.

ProtoMan tried to help - he really did - but even after he'd managed to put everything Chaud needed to do into a list (ordered by most pressing and important), he was still amazed at how much needed to be done, and how much of it was forcing Chaud to work himself to the near-impossible deadline of two days. This was not because Chaud was lazy and had procrastinated; in fact, it was the exact opposite. Chaud had tried very, very hard to get everything done, but his work as the vice president of IPC and various school projects from remorseless teachers (not to mention his duties as a Net Saver) meant that he was constantly having more work piled on him.

 _Perhaps there is something I can do,_ ProtoMan thought. Putting things into a list was not the only thing he could do - far from it, in fact.

Several of these school projects could actually be done by him - it wasn't as though the teachers would be able to tell the difference, after all. He often assisted Chaud with his schoolwork, and their writing styles were similar enough that his handiwork could be passed as Chaud's. The same was true of the Net Saver reports, though ProtoMan was certain that the commissioner would not mind knowing that he had written these instead of Chaud, seeing as they were a package deal after all.

He was uncertain about the work related to IPC, so ProtoMan decided to leave that all alone for now - instead, he went through the list he had created, disregarding his own for now (it was not as pressing as Chaud's, he could put it off for a few days), and worked out which ones he could do in an attempt to lighten his overworked operator's workload.

ProtoMan went through the school projects first. None of these, not even the 'challenge' from Chaud and ProtoMan's NetBattler instructors, required his operator's full or even part attention. Most of them would just waste time, so ProtoMan started working on what he could.

Some things he disregarded entirely - either because they had already been done or because the deadlines for them had already passed (that was probably going to harm Chaud's grades, but ProtoMan was certain he could ask for some extra time on some of the more essential ones seeing as Chaud was listed in the school database as having 'special circumstances').

The quiet tapping of Chaud working away on whatever he had been doing had been background noise to ProtoMan, but now, just as he finished off a small geology project, he realised that Chaud had gone oddly silent.

Concerned, ProtoMan activated the hologram program and appeared on top of the PET.

His operator was sitting exactly where he'd been for the past several hours already, half-slumped in his chair. His fingers were resting on the keyboard of his computer, but he wasn't moving, just staring blankly at the screen.

ProtoMan was shocked and extremely worried when he noticed how dull and exhausted Chaud's eyes were. He also noticed that Chaud seemed to be shaking slightly, even though the weather was not very cold as far as he knew.

He hated to do this, but he had no choice.

"Chaud," he called. "Chaud! Wake up!"

Chaud stirred slightly, and managed to raise his head to look at ProtoMan. He needed sleep, desperately, and ProtoMan wanted nothing more than to tell his operator that he could rest - but he couldn't. He hated this, he hated doing this to him, but he had to.

"You still have work to do," ProtoMan said reluctantly. "Please try to stay awake. And alert," he added, having just realised that Chaud knew very well he couldn't sleep but was unable stop himself from lapsing into a state of inattentiveness.

Chaud nodded slightly, and went back to typing. He was considerably slower than he normally was and didn't appear to be paying attention to what he was typing - ProtoMan checked the screen and found that Chaud had typed out the same word four times in a row and had misspelt it in every way possible.

ProtoMan frowned to himself, thoroughly upset, and went back into the PET. He brought up Chaud's computer program and silently corrected the mistakes, and noticed that there were several other mistakes and misspellings scattered around the very same piece of work.

Yet there was nothing he could do about that at the moment. He'd just have to keep an eye on it while he was working on the school projects and correct it as need be, otherwise Chaud would end up submitting it with all of the mistakes in place, and everything would just get worse for him.

That was something ProtoMan desperately wished to avoid.

But even after going through the list again after having completed several of the school projects, he was dismayed to learn that there was still far too much for Chaud to do.

How exactly did anyone expect one person to be able to do all of this in _two days_? The frustration crept into ProtoMan's systems like a bug crawling into a house, but he pushed it away and forced himself to continue, deciding to move on to the Net Saver reports just to get those out of the way. He could go back to the school projects and anything else later.

For the entire day, he did nothing but work and work - and occasionally check Chaud's own work to make sure he wasn't about to submit anything with horrible mistakes. By the time night fell, he was fairly certain his power was running dangerously low, but how he felt was nothing in comparison to Chaud, who had begun to slip in and out of consciousness ever since the sky had gotten darker.

ProtoMan had to activate the hologram program each time and force Chaud to wake up. On the last few occasions, he'd had to shout very loudly - loudly enough that the secretary stationed outside of Chaud's office could hear him, but though she was clearly worried, she made no comments about the shouting when she brought Chaud coffee.

A constant stream of the hot beverage and absolutely no chance for even a five-minute-rest left Chaud even worse than he'd been hours ago. ProtoMan could keep himself going by using the occasional recovery chip, but no such thing existed for humans.

"CHAUD!" ProtoMan bellowed, when it was nearing midnight. "WAKE UP!"

Chaud had grown used to this by now and automatically went back to work. He was shaking so badly that he could hardly type anymore, but somehow he managed it and ProtoMan was left to deal with the shame of forcing this overworked child into sheer exhaustion.

There was nothing he could do aside from try to lighten the load, but it just . . . it just wasn't _working_. Absurdly, though he knew this was untrue, the list just did not seem to get any shorter no matter how much he worked through it, no matter how much Chaud did on his end either.

Despair half-paralysed him suddenly, and he sat down heavily on the PET's surface, burying his face in his hands. His operator was going to work himself to death and there was nothing he could do about it, nothing and no one would be able to help him out . . .

And then, as the human saying went, a lightbulb went off in his head.

 **OOOOOO**

Not much dialogue in this one, since it focuses more on explaining what's going on and how ProtoMan's reacting to it (not very well, basically).

And poor Chaud's not doing very well either. In case it's not obvious enough, this is the entire reason behind the name of this 'part'. He's so damn tired he can't even speak anymore, and I'm pretty sure he's quite literally running on nothing but coffee at this point. Well, coffee and ProtoMan shouting at him to wake up, but same difference.

Who can guess what kind of idea ProtoMan just got at the end there? You'll find out in the next chapter anyway, but just out of curiosity, what do you think he's gonna do?

Read and review!


	11. Exhaustion, Part 2

The second chapter of _Exhaustion_ is also the last one, as I said in the previous chapter, and you guys get to see what ProtoMan thought of at the end of the last chapter.

To inform everyone, I'm uploading these as I finish the different 'parts', so I won't get to read anyone's things and then be like 'ooooh you're close enough I guess' in this AN, but see if your ideas are anywhere close to what our favourite red swordsman does.

Since I wanna get into this and write, I'll end this AN here.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

ProtoMan dedicated a grand total of five minutes to writing out various emails, and as soon as he'd sent them, he went straight back to working on Chaud's list. He'd more or less abandoned his own by now (he'd actually completely forgotten about it, but that didn't matter to him anymore) and was focusing completely on his operator's work.

Half an hour later, he was distracted from a particularly evil piece of schoolwork (something about a month-long project, but who cared anymore) by several Navis streaming into the cyberspace of Chaud's PET.

He paused and turned to face them - MegaMan, SearchMan, Roll, Glide, IceMan, GutsMan, TomahawkMan, NumberMan and AquaMan . . . they'd all answered his emails. Thank god.

"You look terrible," was the first thing MegaMan said to him. Far from being amused, as his operator likely would be, he was instead concerned.

"What?" ProtoMan said blankly.

"And I thought MegaMan was bad after a sleepless night . . . You look like you really need to go into sleep-mode," Roll said worriedly. "Is Chaud working you too hard?"

"No, he is not. It is Chaud who is working too hard, but he is unable to stop, he has deadlines and I am trying my best to help," ProtoMan explained, or tried to. Roll had said 'a sleepless night', implying that there was only one night of sleeplessness. No, there had been many, but somehow he knew saying that would just make everything worse.

"What is it you need us to help you with?" SearchMan asked. Unlike the other Navis, who all looked at ProtoMan with varying degrees of concern, SearchMan's expression was instead (forgive the pun) searching. Not wary, exactly, but he was giving ProtoMan a considering look he couldn't figure out.

"I . . ." ProtoMan trailed off, distracted suddenly. Chaud had gone silent again. "Excuse me."

He left the bewildered Navis inside the PET and appeared once again as a small hologram in the real world.

"WAKE UP!" he shouted without even checking to see if Chaud had once again fallen into a state of half-consciousness.

Once he was certain Chaud was working, however slowly, he went back into the PET to face his shocked friends.

"I have never heard you yell at your operator before," Glide said, awed.

"It's the only way I can keep him going, aside from requesting more coffee," ProtoMan explained. He paused. "Ah . . . I have not explained why I asked you here, have I?"

"No, you haven't," TomahawkMan replied, exchanging a wide-eyed glance with GutsMan.

"He has too much to do, and too little time in which to do it all," ProtoMan said. "I have made a list - here, this is it - and no matter how much I try to help, the workload just . . . I am aware this sounds absurd, but it does not seem to be getting smaller. I am working, so is Chaud, yet nothing we do will make this go away. Or . . . not 'go away', but . . . no, what . . ."

He'd lost his train of thought and frowned at his feet, trying to figure out where he'd been going with that sentence. But no matter how hard he tried, ProtoMan just couldn't remember what he'd been trying to say. Perhaps his energy levels were too low again. He needed another recovery chip.

"So, you want us to help you lighten the workload for Chaud?" MegaMan guessed, coming forward to study the list. When he saw everything that was on there, his mouth dropped open. "This is . . . P-ProtoMan, how much time does Chaud have left for this stuff?"

"The deadline for all of it is today," ProtoMan answered.

"That's impossible!" MegaMan gasped. "How can one person get all of this done in a single day? Even a Navi couldn't manage this!"

ProtoMan shook his head and banished the list. "This is why I requested your assistance, all of you. No matter how fast or hard I work, I cannot make this go away - and Chaud is unable to work to his usual pace, he is too tired. I have to force him to wake up or he will slip into unconsciousness and everything will just get worse."

His friends exchanged glances, and ProtoMan was disheartened to see that none of them looked entirely happy about this. He did not know whether or not that was due to his explanation of Chaud's predicament, or because he had the nerve to ask for help with something like this, but he was beyond desperate now.

He got on his hands and knees and bowed, forehead touching the ground.

"Please," he said. "I have no right to ask any of you this, I know, but please, for the sake of my operator if nothing else, I ask for your help. You do not have to do much, I don't even mind if you say 'no', but please . . . I am asking - no. I am _begging_ for your help."

He didn't look up, so he had no idea what sort of expressions this display was getting, but the silence that followed was more than telling.

ProtoMan had braced himself for the worst when he was surprised by a gentle hand settling on his shoulder, and he raised his head to look at SearchMan, who had gotten down onto one knee in front of him.

"There's no need for that," SearchMan told him. "Of course we'll help."

For the first time in days, ProtoMan felt something akin to hope - and sheer gratitude towards his friends.

He stood up with a little difficulty - SearchMan wordlessly assisted him and ProtoMan was thankful that no one said a word about it - and brought up the list once again.

"What do you need us to do?" SearchMan asked him gently.

"Work," ProtoMan replied. "I need you all to help me with this work. Just . . . pick something and do it, I suppose. If- if you do not mind. I-I said I don't mind if you refuse, and I still-"

"SearchMan already said it, we'll help you out," Roll interrupted him. "So, come on, everyone! You heard him, pick something and do it!"

"Who put you in charge?" IceMan muttered.

Roll glared at him. "What was that?" she demanded.

"N-nothing," IceMan squeaked, half-cowering behind AquaMan, who giggled.

ProtoMan stepped back and allowed them all to scan the list properly. Gradually, each Navi selected something from the list and began to work on it diligently. In less than half a minute, everyone except SearchMan and MegaMan had chosen something. Both of them stayed near ProtoMan, clearly wishing to speak with him.

"Exactly how long has it been since you and Chaud last got any sleep?" SearchMan asked him carefully.

"I . . ." ProtoMan realised that he had lost track of how many sleepless days and nights it had been. "I don't know," he confessed.

"You really need to go into sleep-mode," MegaMan told him. "Why don't you leave this to us for now, and-"

"No," ProtoMan said, cutting him off. "I need to finish any work I started, and I need to make sure Chaud stays awake."

But MegaMan's words had some effect on him - suddenly his vision swam, and he swayed on his feet. It was only SearchMan and MegaMan grabbing his arms that stopped him from collapsing where he stood.

ProtoMan waited for the dizziness to pass, then forced himself to stand up straight. He held out a hand and a digital recovery chip materialised there, which he quickly downloaded. It took a moment to take effect, and when it did, he hardly felt any better. These recovery chips weren't doing their job properly, but if he could only have a little bit of extra energy for a few minutes, that was fine.

His friends and fellow Net Savers were watching him with unreadable expressions.

"And how many recovery chips have you downloaded to keep yourself from collapsing?" SearchMan asked.

"I have lost count. It's in the low hundreds, I believe," ProtoMan replied as honestly as he was able to.

"You need to sleep," MegaMan told him firmly.

"I need to finish this work. I will sleep once I am certain Chaud's workload is at least manageable."

Without another word, he turned away from them and went back to the school project he had been working on before his friends had appeared.

He knew that was not going to be the end of it, but thankfully SearchMan and MegaMan did not press the issue any further for now. They too chose something from the list and began working on it, and occasionally when ProtoMan would glance around to check how everyone was doing, he would catch them watching him out of the corner of their eyes.

No. He was not going to sleep until everything was done, otherwise Chaud would never be able to sleep either.

For the rest of the day, the group of Navis worked in silence. The only think that broke that silence was ProtoMan's occasional trips into the real world to wake Chaud up, but by the end of the third hour, the Navis had grown used to it and hardly looked up anymore.

With ten Navis and one human working, the list gradually grew smaller and smaller until, finally, there were just two things left. Those two things were IPC-related and could only be done by Chaud himself, so ProtoMan waited until Chaud had finished with his current project before wordlessly putting the assignments in front of him.

He assisted where he could, which was almost everywhere - in the end, even though Chaud was supposed to do these himself, ProtoMan ended up doing almost all of the work himself, with a little bit of assistance from his friends.

Mindlessly, Chaud went to go for the next assignment, but paused in confusion when nothing came up.

ProtoMan once again activated the hologram program - this time, not to force Chaud to stay alert, but for a much better reason.

"There is nothing left for you to do," ProtoMan informed Chaud gently, when his operator looked at him for an explanation. "All work has been finished, you can rest now. If anything urgent happens while you are asleep, I promise I will wake you."

That was half a lie - unless it was world-threatening, ProtoMan was not going to wake Chaud up for anything.

Chaud stared at him for a long moment, and then slumped in his seat, eyes finally sliding shut. Once ProtoMan was absolutely certain his operator was finally asleep, he went back into the PET.

The second he went back in, he stumbled and fell over onto his backside, head drooping.

He only allowed himself half a moment before remembering that his work was still not yet done, and he pulled up his own list just as SearchMan crouched in front of him while the other Navis hovered nearby uncertainly.

"What's this?" SearchMan asked, distracted by the new list. "I thought Chaud's work was done."

"It is," ProtoMan half-mumbled, speaking with some difficulty now. "This is my list, not his. I need to finish this."

"No," SearchMan told him sternly. "I do not care how much work you have to do, you're going to go into sleep-mode even if I have to knock you senseless with my gun. GutsMan."

GutsMan lumbered over, peering down at ProtoMan with worried eyes. It surprised ProtoMan how large GutsMan was - he had never thought about it before, but somehow, seeing GutsMan from this perspective made the large Navi seem even bigger.

Was that his depleted energy speaking? Or had he just finally gone insane?

"Put him on a datablock, and watch over him - make sure he goes to sleep and stays asleep," SearchMan told GutsMan.

"Gotcha, guts," GutsMan agreed.

He reached down a took hold of ProtoMan, easily fitting his body into his giant hands, and carried him over to a nearby block of data before carefully setting him down on top of it. Then GutsMan sat down and took up watch over ProtoMan.

Just before darkness took ProtoMan under, he heard SearchMan speaking to the other Navis.

"Alright, same deal as last time - pick something to do, and do it."

And then, like Chaud, he finally went to sleep.

 **OOOOOO**

The previous chapter focuses more on setting this 'part' up, and this one focuses more on ProtoMan doing his level best to self-delete via energy depletion. The poor guy needs a damn rest (Chaud even more so), and luckily he's realised that he has friends who are more than willing to help him out.

Don't quote me on how Navi exhaustion works, since I'm mostly just going by that one episode of _Beast_ where MegaMan stays up all night to play with Trill and ends up looking like the blue version of Dark MegaMan.

In this case it's a little more extreme, since ProtoMan and Chaud have been up for literal days and they've had pretty much zero breaks. Like I said in the last chapter, Chaud was basically just running on coffee and ProtoMan's shouting, and it's shown in this one that ProtoMan's keeping himself awake via recovery chips and sheer force of will.

In the narration, ProtoMan mentions that the recovery chips aren't working properly - they actually are, it's just that his energy is so low that the recovery chips can't give him enough of a boost to keep him active for more than a few minutes.

Basically, this 'part' shows you guys how hard Chaud and ProtoMan have to work, and also gives me the excuse to write some adorable fluff between the Navis.

I'd also like to point something out that I find pretty funny - SearchMan is essentially treating ProtoMan like a little brother or something, but ironically ProtoMan is probably one of the oldest NetNavis on the planet, going by this canon's explanation of his origins as Proto-13.

But yeah, this 'part' is done, and next 'part' . . . hmm . . . Well, I think we'll have an action one, this time. I'm not sure what it'll be called yet, but since it's action-based, expect Cross Fusion to show up - and that means colourblind Chaud and ProtoMan again. Hands up who likes that headcanon!

*raises hand*

Oh, I'm not allowed to raise my hand because I'm the one who said it? Oh well, too late.

Read and review!


	12. No Secrets For You, Part 1

Ooooh we've had four reviews so far . . . Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, reading them made me feel really warm and I'm more than happy to reply to any questions you guys have!

So . . . questions. And stuff.

First of all, I guess I should answer one of Emily P's reviews - you asked about _Black and White_ and whether or not Chaud and ProtoMan's friends know about ProtoMan's blindness at that point since it's _Axess_ -era. The answer to that is no, since ProtoMan can see via the helmet and there's not really much need for either of them to tell anyone about ProtoMan's handicaps. However, rest assured everyone else will find out in a later 'part', though I'm not sure when I'll write that because I've got some other ideas that I want to write at the moment.

And since I wanna write stuff, I'll also reply to blazenight01's review here, though there's not a question in it like there was with Emily P's. Sleep exhaustion is definitely not a joke, although some comedies can manage to make it funny in a way that isn't offensive - but that's not the case here, so it's treated very seriously. It's likely that Chaud got ill after the events of _Exhaustion_ , and I'm debating whether or not to write a sort of follow-up 'part' to show what happened after those events.

I'll actually ask everyone who's reading this a question - do you want a follow-up 'part' for _Exhaustion_?

But for now, have _No Secrets For You_ , a 'part' where the title really doesn't fit the mood of the content (which is intentional, I appear to specialise in making angsty scenes less serious by throwing in the dumbest jokes ever).

Oh, and Chaud's twelve. This is set after _Beast_ but before _Beast+_. I'm sort of pretending that _Beast+_ doesn't happen, not because I don't like that series (I like it a lot, actually), but because only ten of the episodes have been subbed and I can't watch the others until they also get subbed. So for the purposes of convenience, _Beast+_ never happened and _Beast_ is the end of the series for this fic.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Everything was black and white, as it always was for Chaud and ProtoMan during their Cross Fusion. Barely two weeks since they'd gotten back from the insanity that was Beyondard, and they were already having to fight against Navis misusing CopyBots and, somehow, materialised viruses. Chaud wasn't sure how the Navi they were fighting right now had managed to get the viruses into the real world and neither was ProtoMan, but at the moment that didn't matter.

What did matter was deleting the viruses and forcing the Navi back into the cyberworld, or alternatively deleting the Navi as well.

 _[Take your next right, the control room should be at the opposite end of the hallway,]_ ProtoMan informed him as he ran.

Chaud wordlessly followed his Navi's directions, breaking right and sprinting down the hallway. As he'd said, right at the end was a half-open door that lead straight into the control room.

As soon as he was through the door, Chaud skidded to a halt and took half a second to get his breath back. Then he spun around, slammed the door shut, and pulled a nearby desk over to it to barricade himself inside. The desk would have been impossible to move had he not been Fused with ProtoMan, thus giving him inhuman strength.

Once again he turned around, and this time he studied the interior of the control room.

There were three semi-circle rows of monitors. The largest of the monitors was directly attached to the wall opposite in the further row, and it, along with three others in the other two rows closer to Chaud, was active. The others were all black and blank.

Chaud moved over to the nearest monitor, the only one in the row closest to him, and leaned down to get a better look. It was showing him an empty hallway, and it took him a moment to realise it was the hallway just outside the control room.

"We're safe for now," Chaud said, "unless there's something on the screen we can't see."

 _[I don't believe that's very likely, but it is good to be cautious all the same,]_ ProtoMan agreed. _[What about the other monitors?]_

Chaud went into the second row. The other two active monitors were side-by-side. One showed the spacious foyer of the power plant, while the other showed a room with nothing but what looked like cardboard boxes in it.

He glanced up at the largest monitor on the wall. That one was showing him the turbine room, which was even bigger than the foyer. There were several viruses crawling around in there, either on guard or looking for prey.

"Aside from the viruses, it looks clear," Chaud said. Underneath his faceplate, he was frowning. "But . . . why? It doesn't make any sense."

 _[Yes, the Navi we're after should be in the turbine room as well, yet he is not anywhere we can see,]_ ProtoMan commented. _[And where are Lan and Raika?]_

Chaud shook his head, and pressed a hand to the side of his helmet. "Lan," he tried, "Raika. Come in. We've found the control room. Can either of you hear me?"

Nothing.

After a moment of silence, ProtoMan spoke up. _[It seems the Navi is somehow blocking communications with them,]_ he said. _[Should I attempt to contact Famous?]_

"If we can't contact Lan or Raika, I don't think we can contact anyone outside of the power plant," Chaud muttered. "They could be somewhere else, maybe dealing with the Navi."

 _[Or they have been injured and are being held captive.]_

Chaud rolled his eyes. "You always assume the worst," he half-complained. "Did you turn into an old man when I wasn't looking?"

 _[Well, I am several years older than you,]_ ProtoMan replied. Chaud could feel his amusement and heard the smile in his voice as he spoke.

But their shared amusement quickly vanished when Chaud spotted movement in the room full of cardboard boxes. For a moment he thought it was Raika, but then he realised the shape was bulkier and didn't have a sniper gun - it was the Navi they were fighting, creeping around.

"That room probably connects somewhere we can't see because of the angle of the camera," Chaud realised.

 _[Is there any way to change the direction the camera is facing?]_ ProtoMan wondered.

Chaud tapped away at the keyboard attached to the monitor, but he was unfamiliar with the systems and gave up on the task after it became clear his attempt wasn't working.

"Doesn't look like it," he said quietly, watching the bulky Navi move around on-screen. "What is he doing?"

The Navi was now opening up the boxes carefully. Each time he checked the contents of one box, he would scowl and move on to another one, leaving them open - and this time, the camera angle allowed Chaud and ProtoMan to see what was inside the boxes.

 _[Chips,]_ ProtoMan said. _[Those are the power-up chips that power plant employees typically use on their Navis so that work efficiency can be increased.]_

"So he's looking for something specific, but it's not the power-up chips," Chaud mused. "Is there any way to check what else should be in those boxes?"

 _[Not unless we Cross Out so you can jack me into the network. But that is ill-advised, because it would put you in danger and I do not wish to leave you alone should any viruses or the Navi himself find you in here.]_

Chaud didn't think that ProtoMan would be gone long enough for something like that to happen, and besides, he could see the Navi on the screen anyway. But ProtoMan did have a good point.

"Okay, forget that idea, then," Chaud sighed, leaning back. "So we have no idea where Lan and Raika are, but we know where our enemy is. The only problem with that is that we also can't contact Lan and Raika to tell them where this guy is, and if we go looking for them, we may end up losing the Navi again."

 _[Try turning on the other monitors, perhaps they can give us a better idea as to where everything is,]_ ProtoMan suggested.

Having no other options left and no suggestions himself, Chaud went to work. Turning on the other monitors proved to be a much easier task than trying to change the direction of the camera in the box room, and within minutes he had managed to turn on all monitors aside from two that had cracked screens. They now had a much better view of the power plant's halls and rooms.

"There they are," he said, breathing a sigh of relief. He'd spotted Lan sneaking through a narrow hallway, looking around as though he was expecting an attack at any moment - which could end up being true - and Raika was in a room not too far away from him, hiding behind a metallic-looking machine with his gun trained carefully on a virus that was searching the room for him.

 _[There is an announcement system in these monitors,]_ ProtoMan noted. _[We can use that to contact them - though I do not think Raika would appreciate his position being given away . . .]_

"I'll wait until he's okay, and then I'll try it," Chaud decided. ProtoMan agreed, so they both kept an eye on Lan and Raika's positions.

After almost a full minute, during which Lan had gotten further away from Raika's position, Raika finally made a move. He fired on the virus that was stalking him at point-blank range the moment it found him, and stood up with a visible look of relief.

Chaud turned on the announcement systems for Raika and Lan's positions only.

"Lan! Raika! Can you hear me? It's Chaud, I'm in the control room!"

They both jumped on-screen and looked around wildly until they managed to spot the cameras in their respective positions. Lan, being Lan, waved wildly at the screen, while Raika nodded to show he was listening.

"That Navi's after something in a room full of cardboard boxes," Chaud told them. "ProtoMan says they're full of power-up chips that the workers use, but he doesn't seem interested in them. We don't know what he's after, but he's still in there. I'll tell you where to go."

Raika's mouth started moving, but Chaud couldn't hear what he was saying. In fact, and he'd only just realised this, there was absolutely no sound from any of the monitors. All he had was picture.

"I can't hear you," Chaud told Raika. Lan looked confused and pointed to himself. "No, not you, Raika."

Now Raika looked confused.

"No, I mean- ugh. There's no sound, I can only see you, and you can only hear me," Chaud explained. "Just follow my directions. Lan, stay where you are, you're closest to the Navi at the moment, but don't try and go after him on your own. Raika, get out of that room and go down the hallway to your left, and follow it until you get to a . . ."

And here he paused. The door he had been about to tell Raika about was light grey, but he wasn't sure if that was its actual colour or if it was some other colour that he couldn't see because of his current colourblindness.

Raika was frowning at Chaud through the screen, even though he couldn't see Chaud. He was talking again, but Chaud had no idea what he was saying.

 _[I believe he's asking why you stopped talking,]_ ProtoMan said. _[Though I'm not certain about it. I can't lip-read any more than you can.]_

"This is gonna get annoying very quickly," Chaud muttered to himself. He raised his voice so he could be heard by Raika. "Okay, there's a door that's . . . five doors down the hall I told you to go down. It's on the left side of the hall as you're running up it. It should lead out into the hall that Lan's in."

Raika mouthed something, and it was pretty obvious he was repeating Chaud's instructions incredulously.

"If it helps, the door's light in colour," Chaud added.

Raika sighed and visibly decided to just go with it. He went out of the room and ran to his left, following the hallway as Chaud had said. Chaud kept an eye on the doors that Raika passed.

"Stop!" Chaud called suddenly. "You just passed the door I told you to go through."

Raika froze in place, looking at the door he'd just passed by and then at the one he'd been about to open. He looked around for the camera in the hall he was in at the moment, and gave Chaud an irritated look. He held up four fingers.

 _[You miscounted,]_ ProtoMan informed him helpfully.

"Yes, thank you, ProtoMan," Chaud muttered.

Raika gave Chaud an exaggerated shrug and pushed open the door. When he'd finally joined Lan, Chaud checked the box room. The Navi was still searching through the various boxes in there.

"He's still there, if we hurry we can catch him," Chaud told Lan and Raika, who both nodded to show they'd heard. "Alright, keep going down the hall you're in. There's a dark grey door at the end that leads into a room with a couple of computers on your right. There's another door inside that room that'll take you through another hall. I'll give you more directions when you get there."

His friends nodded and ran off down the hall. They reached the end within moments, and turned to their right. Once again they looked confused, and seemed to have a small discussion before turning to look at Chaud through the screen again. Lan was gesturing to his body for some reason, and Raika was looking irritated again.

"What does that mean?" Chaud wondered. Maybe they should learn sign language in case something like this ever happened again, because this silly game of charades was confusing him to no end.

Lan waved his arms up and down, and then spread them wide. Raika was gesturing to him now, pointing to the darker-toned parts of Lan's body.

 _[ . . . I believe that door may have been blue in colour, not dark grey,]_ ProtoMan realised. _[You confused them.]_

Chaud froze. He tried to speak, failed, and then tried again.

"Oh," was all he could say. "Uh. Guys, that's the right door, I just got the colour wrong. Sorry about that."

Lan rolled his eyes and had probably muttered something very offensive, but Raika was looking up with a concerned and contemplative expression. Chaud coughed awkwardly.

"Just . . . just go through the door," he mumbled.

This was not going well at all.

 **OOOOOO**

Poor Chaud, he can't see colours and they might actually be necessary if he wants to direct his friends through the power plant.

Anywho, who can guess why this 'part' is called _No Secrets For You_? I'll give y'all a hint, it has something to do with Chaud and ProtoMan not telling anyone - not even Dr. Hikari and Famous - about the whole 'we're colourblind during Cross Fusion and we have no idea why' thing.

But yeah, have some more sassy ProtoMan and Chaud getting frustrated. I love sassy-ass ProtoMan, it just fits him somehow. He seems like the type to be sassy, while Chaud is more cutting sarcasm.

Read and review!


	13. No Secrets For You, Part 2

I'm basically gonna skip ahead to the end of the case here. The actual fight wasn't what I was going for in writing this 'part', since it focuses more on Chaud's inability to tell Raika and Lan where they're supposed to be going.

It also focuses on something else related to that, so be prepared for Chaud's random lies again. Poor kid needs a lot of help, dear lord.

And that help comes in the form of ProtoMan mostly, but also his human friends. Because yeah he has those now, he just forgets because he's not used to people actually wanting to be near him without some ulterior motive in mind.

This poor baby. Someone save him.

Anyway.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

They watched the operator of the Navi being led into a Net Police car. His Navi was already confined inside his PET, and the CopyBot that had been used had been confiscated and was being checked over for any malicious software. Previously they hadn't even known there was an operator, but in hindsight it made sense - a single Navi couldn't have been able to materialise all those viruses on his own (unless he was a Darkloid or something), so he had help in the form of his criminal operator.

"That Navi had been searching for the remote switch that his operator had stashed inside that room with all the power-up chips," Raika said. "If he'd found it, he would've used it to set off the bombs his operator had planted in the turbine room."

"Good thing we got there before he found it, then," Lan sighed. He glared sideways at Chaud. "Although we almost didn't."

Chaud couldn't meet his friends' eyes and chose to study his feet instead. "I said I was sorry," he muttered.

Lan turned to face him properly - Chaud couldn't hold back a cringe - while Raika watched them both out of the corner of his eyes.

"You kept getting us lost!" Lan exclaimed. He mocked Chaud's voice. " _It's a dark grey door. It's the one next to the light-coloured machine. The third hallway past the grey box._ "

"That's a little mean, Lan . . ." MegaMan protested, appearing on his operator's shoulder.

Lan huffed. "It's not mean if it's true," he pointed out. "I bet if we'd just tried to find our way without his help, we'd have stopped that Navi way earlier. Every single time Chaud told us where to go, we got lost! Grey? _Grey_? Nothing you told us about was grey!"

"It . . . it looked grey," Chaud mumbled.

"Leave him alone," ProtoMan said sharply, appearing on Chaud's shoulder and scowling at Lan. "You would have never known where the Navi was if it hadn't been for us, so shut-"

"ProtoMan, it's okay," Chaud said quietly. "He's right anyway, I screwed up."

"You did not!" ProtoMan cried, spinning around to face his operator. "None of this was your fault, if it was anyone's, you may blame me - the error lies entirely with my program anyway!"

"That's not true," Chaud protested.

"I'll blame both of you!" Lan snapped, causing Chaud to flinch again.

"Lan," Raika said loudly, "that's enough. If you want someone to blame, then blame the criminal who decided to try blowing up the power plant in the first place. Chaud and ProtoMan did their best to help us. It's not nice to get angry at them for something that they can't help."

Chaud turned to face Lan and Raika, though he focused mainly on the oldest of the Net Saver trio.

Raika couldn't know about the colourblindness, right? The way he was talking . . . it sounded as though he did. But Chaud was certain that only he and ProtoMan knew about it, they hadn't even told Dr. Hikari or Famous.

However . . .

Raika wasn't an idiot. He'd be able to figure things out for himself just by paying attention, and Chaud's inability to give them directions due to him misnaming the majority of the coloured objects and doors they'd had to pass by or through was a fairly big clue as to what the real problem was. If he didn't suspect anything before, he almost certainly did now.

For several moments, there was nothing but silence. Lan was still seething slightly, but even he understood there was something more to this than he knew.

"Chaud," Raika said carefully, "is there something you're not telling us?"

"No," Chaud immediately replied. This was almost an echo of when Dr. Hikari had asked that same question.

"Hm," Raika said disbelievingly. He studied Chaud silently, and then brought out his PET and messed around with it for a moment. He held it up so Chaud could it. "Tell me what colour this is."

On the screen of the PET was a picture of a door.

"Blue," Chaud responded. "Raika, what-"

"Bear with me," Raika interrupted, messing with his PET again. "Alright, now tell me what colour this is."

Now it was a picture of some weird-looking machine that Chaud couldn't name.

"Yellow," he said, with a sinking feeling that he knew exactly what he was looking at now.

"And this?"

Now it was another door.

"Green."

"This one?"

A panel set halfway into a wall next to a row of open doors.

"Red."

"And finally these."

Two more doors, both different colours.

"Purple and yellow," Chaud said quietly.

Raika nodded, and put away his PET. "Those were all images of the places you told us to go through or past back in the power plant," he explained, probably more for Lan's benefit than Chaud's. "You just told me the correct colour for each and every image, and yet, while we were inside, you could only describe the colours as various shades of grey."

Lan was wide-eyed as he stared at Raika, and then he turned his startled gaze on Chaud, who could feel his face heating up in embarrassment and shame.

"I . . ." Chaud trailed off. He glanced at his friends, and then exchanged a glance with ProtoMan, who looked just as shame-faced. Chaud looked back at Lan and Raika. "I have to go," he blurted out. "Work. And stuff."

He spun on his heel, but had barely taken a single step before Raika called out to him.

"Hold on."

Chaud winced and froze on the spot. He didn't turn around to face them, though.

"You couldn't see the colours during Cross Fusion, could you?" Raika said. "And I don't think you ever could. Were you colourblind the moment you first Cross Fused with ProtoMan?"

"Colourblind?" Lan whispered in shock.

" . . . Yes," Chaud replied, turning around. He kept his gaze lowered and so didn't see either of their expressions, but was aware of their eyes trained on him. It made him extremely uncomfortable. "I don't know what went wrong. I don't know why we're colourblind during Cross Fusion. But that's the only problem we've had, and it hasn't affected any of our battles."

"It affected this one," Raika reminded him, and Chaud unconsciously clenched his fist. "Why have you kept this a secret for so long? Do Dr. Hikari and Famous know?"

Chaud shook his head. "They asked what was wrong, they suspected something wasn't right after I missed all the targets," he whispered. "But I lied. I said there was nothing wrong."

"Dad told me about that," Lan said, almost too quiet to hear. "He said you got all the coloured targets, only they weren't the right colour. He said you were supposed to hit the red ones, but you got the green ones instead."

"We thought the colours were red and blue, not red and green," ProtoMan spoke up.

"Why did you lie?" Raika asked, not unkindly.

"I don't know."

"You must have some idea."

Chaud looked up and scowled at him. "I don't know, okay?" he snapped. "It just came out, and I couldn't tell anyone after that, or else . . ."

"Or else what?" SearchMan, who had just appeared on Raika's shoulder, asked.

"Or else they would take away the Synchro Chip." It was ProtoMan who said this, and Chaud was just as surprised as the others. "Well . . . that is how Chaud felt. He did not know - neither did I, at the time, for I was unable to recognise the anxiety he was feeling when he lied. I thought it over afterwards, and was able to remember exactly what was going through his - our - mind back then. We were both afraid that Dr. Hikari would terminate our contract and take away the Synchro Chip, and so we kept quiet about this . . . glitch. But the thought was so quick that we could not recognise it for what it truly was, and Chaud did not dwell on it like I did."

Chaud was silent mostly out of shock this time. He stared at ProtoMan for several moments, and then dropped his gaze to the ground again.

"I said nothing about this because I had no desire to make you feel any worse than you already did," ProtoMan told Chaud, as if he was desperate to explain his actions. "I apologise for keeping this from you."

"No need for apologies, I understand," Chaud mumbled.

" . . . Thank you, Chaud."

"You know Dr. Hikari wouldn't take away your Synchro Chip for something like this," Raika said. "It's one little glitch - and maybe even a fixable one. It's just your sight. And like you said, it's never affected your battles before. The only reason it mattered now was because you couldn't give us proper directions."

"It might happen again," ProtoMan replied. "And you would be relying on us to direct you, but we will be unable to do so properly."

"Well, it's not like we need colour to see, right?" Lan pointed out, always the guy to try and see a bright side and cheer up his friends. "And, um, I'm sorry I got mad at you guys about this. You really can't help it, and I shouldn't blame you for it."

"Right," Chaud murmured. He sighed. "Well, what now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, you can't be serious," Chaud said irritably. "I messed up today, and ProtoMan's right, this kinda thing could happen again. Do you really want someone like me on your team, when this handicap could be the difference between life and death?"

"For the love of . . ." Raika hissed.

He walked over to Chaud, and with every step he took, Chaud had to actively resist whirling around and running in the opposite direction. He couldn't stop himself from cringing away, and when Raika was standing in front of him - towering over him like usual - he had his eyes shut tight against what he was certain was about to be some sort of attack.

"Look at me."

It took a moment, but Chaud forced himself to look up. He had been expecting an angry or disappointed look - what he got was instead a gentle expression that he rarely ever saw on Raika's face.

He was so surprised that he didn't even register Raika raising his hand until that hand was settled on Chaud's head, gently ruffling his hair.

"If you don't want us to tell anyone, we won't," Raika told him softly, or as softly as Raika could get. "But don't ever assume we'll look down on you for something like this. Don't assume we'll kick you off the team, either. You're our friend. And I don't like it when my friends are down."

"You stole that from Lan," Chaud mumbled, though there was a small smile creeping onto his face.

"Heck yeah he did, I'm the one who taught both of you about friendship!" Lan announced proudly, suddenly just there next to Chaud. He slapped Chaud on the back heartily. "You can't see colours, so what! We'll just make up for it, like we always do when one of us isn't doing well."

"Same goes for you, ProtoMan," MegaMan spoke up.

"I . . . that . . ." ProtoMan sighed and gave up protesting. "Thank you."

"Thank you," Chaud echoed.

 **OOOOOO**

And so _No Secrets For You_ ends with FEELS. I love writing this kinda crap, it's adorable.

In the last 'part' it was ProtoMan who experienced the loyalty of friendship, and in this one it's Chaud, although the circumstances for both 'parts' are extremely different.

Anyway, Lan and Raika now know about Chaud being colourblind during Cross Fusion.

I'll upload these two chapters and leave them for everyone to read while I'm sleeping/doing whatever until tomorrow evening. I'll be getting back to writing more stuff after this.

If anyone does want a follow-up for _Exhaustion_ , let me know in your reviews!

Read and review!


	14. Unbreakable Bond

AAAAAH YOU GUYS ARE MAKING ME SCREAM I LOVE YOU ALL.

Thanks for the reviews, basically!

To that anon who told me my writing style works well for the characters and all that - you, sir or madam, have just made my . . . what time is it? You've made my evening. Thank you so much.

And to blazenight01, since you want a follow-up, I'm gonna assume that others do as well. I like what you suggested, and it actually gave me an idea as to how I can start the follow-up 'part'. So, thank you as well.

Anyway, as a special thing, I'm gonna give you guys another one-chapter 'part' - and the reason why it's so special is because I'm not gonna have any dialogue in this, it's pure narrative. Basically, it's ProtoMan contemplating his and Chaud's relationship through the years.

By 'through the years', I mean from the moment they first met up to the end of _Beast_. I'm not going into any future bits purely because I don't want to, unless me and Cin come up with something that can only work with the characters being aged-up or something.

Chaud's age is all over the place in this, so I won't bother giving you a timeline for it.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

ProtoMan had spent over half of his life in complete darkness.

This was, as most would agree, highly unusual - for the term in his case was quite literal instead of metaphorical. It was unusual for him because, as a NetNavi, he technically wasn't meant to have any sort of defects, not anything such as blindness anyway. But he was only a prototype Navi, so what counted as normal for most newgens would never count as normal for him.

He was, he suspected, one of the oldest active Navis on the entire planet. He was certainly the oldest in Japan (he'd checked once, out of pure curiosity), and the only blind Navi to ever exist.

But his blindness did not matter to the child he called his operator.

Chaud was the first one to actually treat him as a friend. While ProtoMan could consider his now-deleted 'siblings' as something similar to that, he couldn't truly call them his friends because they had all just been together in the same Area, had been created by the same man. But Chaud was different, there had been a real bond between them - a shaky bond at first, but it grew more stable as time went by.

ProtoMan had gone from a lonely prototype sitting in his creator's network to the protector and best friend of an equally-lonely child in the space of a single day, and he honestly could not have been happier.

Looking back and going over his emotions emulator data from back then, he sometimes wondered how he had not recognised the feeling of happiness he had felt. But at that point his program had not yet been . . . evolved enough to understand the feelings that were being replicated because of Chaud.

Of course, he certainly did recognise the feeling when, at the age of nine, Chaud created a helmet that would allow ProtoMan to actually see the world with his own broken eyes.

The first thing he ever saw was the face of his operator, beaming at him from the other side of the PET's screen. Call him biased all you want, but he immediately decided that Chaud was the best human on the planet.

And he still thought that, even when Chaud suddenly began to treat him differently.

It had happened quite suddenly - Chaud's father had called him to IPC Tower, and he did not bring ProtoMan with him (for ProtoMan had, at the time, been engrossed in an argument between several of the house programs who couldn't agree on the right settings for the lighting system).

When Chaud came back, he had been . . . different. His father, Chaud said, had just made him vice president of IPC. But there had been little to no emotion in the way he had said it.

He was ten years old, his father had just made him vice president, and Chaud was showing absolutely no emotion whatsoever. ProtoMan would have gone as far as to say that Chaud's own emotion emulator program had been shut down, but humans could not just shut down their emotions as a Navi could.

It worried him, and he asked Chaud if he was alright, but the response he received may as well have come from a complete stranger.

 _NetNavis don't question their operators._

An echo of what his father had told ProtoMan many, many times, back when he had been Proto-13. With just those five words, ProtoMan knew his operator - his kind, timid, but curious operator - had inexplicably vanished.

He was treated as data from then on. Chaud had taken on his father's view that Navis were little more than data to be treated as servants, and told ProtoMan to refer to him as 'Master Chaud' or 'sir'. The cold look in the child's eyes every time ProtoMan dared to look into them just made him feel worse and worse, until eventually he shut himself away just as Chaud had done, if only to spare himself from the despair and confusion.

Just like that, their bond was shattered.

And ProtoMan did not know why, but he knew it had something to do with whatever had happened in his creator's officer that day.

It was not Chaud he blamed - he could never blame his operator, whom he still considered his best friend even though Chaud seemed to have thrown that out of the window. He did not blame his operator, not even when he was scolded for doing something wrong (which was rare, but when it did happen, he would often wonder whether the old Chaud would have reacted the same way this new, uncaring version did). He could not blame him, for none of this could be his fault.

So without any other options, ProtoMan blamed himself. He told himself that this was a result of something he had done, and resolved to be the perfect NetNavi for his operator, no matter how much it hurt to pretend he didn't care either.

It was only a year later, after he had been deleted by the Gospel beast and brought back by the overpowered MegaMan, that he found out why Chaud had changed so much.

His father. The man who was supposed to be this child's protector, his comfort, his source of love - the man who was the exact opposite of what a father should be. He had forced Chaud into becoming vice president (upon hearing that, ProtoMan wanted nothing more than to run his sword right through his creator's head, consequences be damned), had punished him severely for trying to refuse, and Chaud . . .

He had changed to fit his father's image of a perfect vice president. This did not explain why he had treated ProtoMan like data for so long - and Chaud had been ashamed to admit the true reason for that.

 _I realised I was alone. My father had just . . . h-he . . . and you weren't there. I couldn't cope with it, so I . . . I guess I sort of blamed you, in a way, because you couldn't protect me. Not from my father. But . . . but I know I'm not alone anymore. I never was, after I got you._

It was strange that it had taken Lan Hikari and MegaMan practically shoving the concept of friendship down his throat to make Chaud admit this, not to mention ProtoMan's temporary deletion.

They began to repair their shattered bond after that. It had taken a while, but the bond was still there - enough for them to gain the same power Lan and MegaMan had, Cross Fusion. It still wasn't enough, though, because they were still . . .

ProtoMan still feared Chaud. He feared making a mistake and angering his operator, for he was afraid that it would all come tumbling down and their bond would once again shatter like glass, fragile as it was. He feared that if he were not the perfect Navi, still pretending even after all this time, Chaud would not want him anymore. He still did not call him Chaud, he called him Master, or sir.

It was a terrible thing, he knew, to be afraid of the very person he considered his best friend. He did not tell any of this to Chaud and somehow managed to keep it out of their shared mind during Cross Fusion.

But then all of that fear became hatred and anger when Chaud downloaded that Dark Chip, and ProtoMan was transformed into Dark ProtoMan, the powerful and evil Darkloid. Everything he had ever thought and felt, even just little flashes, became pure hatred - and he made it his mission to torment Chaud at every opportunity he could take, all to see that hopeless expression and to revel in the knowledge that it was all because of him.

For months he was that cruel, twisted version of himself, and anything good about him had been sealed away deep inside his systems - until Chaud managed to force it all back out in a desperate attempt to save ProtoMan by Cross Fusing with the monster he had been turned into, almost killing himself in the process.

And finally their bond was repaired. There was not a crack in sight, for ProtoMan had felt everything that Chaud had felt - and Chaud had felt everything that ProtoMan had felt.

He no longer called his operator Master or sir. He simply called him Chaud.

Their bond did not waver any longer. In fact, if anything, it simply grew stronger, deeper. They were more powerful together than apart, and ProtoMan did not ever leave his operator's side unless he absolutely had to. Chaud once again talked to him as a friend, as a brother, and ProtoMan could not remember being happier.

He had his best friend back. He did not care for anything else, and he swore he would do his best to protect Chaud, even if he could not materialise himself into the real world.

Their bond, ProtoMan realised, was the most precious thing to him. More precious than the helmet that allowed him to see, more precious than any friendship he shared with his ever-growing circle of friends, more precious than anything he would care to name.

And it was unbreakable.

 **OOOOOO**

Well, there we go! I didn't expect to get this done so quickly, and I didn't expect it to be so easy either, since there's no dialogue and I was trying not to reveal some important points that I wanna write in later 'parts' from Chaud's POV rather than ProtoMan's, but the words kinda just came outta me.

Anyway, next up will be . . . hm . . .

I'm torn between something I'm calling _Songbirds_ , the follow-up to _Exhaustion_ , and something else called _War Games_.

Since I'm good at mood swings, I think we'll go with _War Games_ \- we kinda deserve some ridiculousness after reading this heavy stuff, but since most of it's fluff and ProtoMan just thinking about the bond between him and Chaud, I guess it isn't as heavy as most angst I would normally write.

Hey, quick question, does anyone hate Shuseki Blaze yet? I sure as hell do, and if you like his character (though I have to wonder how anyone could like that monster), I'm afraid he's not being painted in a good light here. He never will be, he's an asshole.

Read and review!


	15. War Games, Part 1

I hope everyone enjoyed _Unbreakable Bond_ , because now we get some completely random silliness that has nothing to do with bonds and everything to do with Chaud and ProtoMan fucking shit up in a good way.

Fair warning to everyone, but both of them will be acting extremely OOC during this 'part'.

Not the same OOCness that came with the excited ProtoMan in _Rainbow Zoo_ , but more of an insane OOCness that's basically 'causing as much chaos as possible while laughing like crazy people'.

And so, without further ado, I give you _War Games_.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"War games?" Lan and Chaud repeated incredulously.

Commissioner Kifune nodded his confirmation. "That's right," he replied.

Lan and Chaud exchanged confused glances. Chaud had never heard of 'war games' before, and by the looks of it, neither had Lan.

Meanwhile, it seemed that Raika had a better idea of what was going on than they did.

"Ah," the Sharonian Net Saver said, a smirk on his face. "It'll be interesting to see how the Japanese Net Police conduct these games."

"What's going on?" Lan asked him.

Raika glanced at them. "You two haven't heard about this?" Apparently the idea hadn't occured to him.

"No," Lan and Chaud replied in unison.

"What is it?" Chaud added.

"War games is basically an event in which military-based organisations create a sort of mock-battle," Raika explained. "Every organisation does it differently, but the way it worked for my country's Net Police was two teams against each other - one would be the 'good guys', the Net Police acting as themselves, while the other would be the 'bad guys', Net Police acting as terrorists. It's all pretend, but we have to act as though it's all real, because it's sort of like training for the real thing."

"Oh, I get it!" Lan exclaimed, now grinning. "So, when you say 'war games', you mean it literally!"

"That's exactly it, Lan," Commissioner Kifune agreed. "And Raika, we do more or less the same here, though I'm sure there are bound to be some differences."

"I'll look forward to seeing them, sir," Raika said, nodding.

"I'm still confused," Chaud spoke up, frowning at them. "Why would anyone want to make some sort of game out of war?"

"That's not it, Chaud," ProtoMan told him, appearing on his shoulder. "War games doesn't mean actual war, that's just the name. It's all pretend. Like . . . like NetBattle training."

Chaud thought about that for a moment, and then nodded. "I think I understand now," he said.

"Good," Commissioner Kifune said, "because this year, we're going to be doing something special."

"Special? How so?" Raika asked curiously.

"Well, we've never had war games with people like the three of you on our team before," the commissioner explained, gesturing towards all three of them. "The mock-terrorist team has already been selected, but we thought that we could add on an extra member just to see how it goes - and that extra member is going to be one of you, our Net Savers capable of Cross Fusion."

"So one of us gets to be a bad guy?" Lan summarised, gasping in delight. "This is gonna be awesome!"

"You're acting like we got chosen," MegaMan sighed, appearing on Lan's shoulder with a mildly exasperated expression. "Let the commissioner tell us who's gonna be the bad guy, and then celebrate."

"Okay, okay . . ." Lan grumbled.

"Who _is_ going to join the opposing team, sir?" Raika asked Commissioner Kifune.

The commissioner smiled at them. There was a strangely mischievous tone about it. "I considered the matter for a while, and ultimately decided to chose the person whose skillset doesn't often come up when fighting materialised Navis and viruses," he said, delaying the moment when he would tell them who was the bad guy purely for dramatic purposes.

"And that person would be . . .?" Chaud asked.

Commissioner Kifune turned his smile toward him exclusively. "You," he replied.

Chaud was too surprised to respond. He exchanged a shocked glance with ProtoMan.

"What!?" Lan exclaimed, half-whining. "But I wanted to be the bad guy!"

"It makes sense," Raika said, shutting Lan up immediately. "We often fight opponents who are powerful like Lan and MegaMan, or even with the same type of abilities as SearchMan and I. But rarely do we ever fight anyone with the speed and intelligence that Chaud and ProtoMan possess. I say they're a good choice to join the bad guy's team."

"Raika," Chaud said gratefully, unable to hold back a smile. He looked at the commissioner. "If it's for a reason like that, I can't really refuse. Can you tell me who else is on the mock-terrorist team?"

"I'm afraid not," Commissioner Kifune said, shaking his head. "The team - of whom there are ten members, eleven with you included - is always randomly selected. Emails are sent out to the randomly-selected members, and how they communicate with each other before the war games start is entirely up to them. I assume they'll contact you once they find out you're going to be on their team."

"So we only know one member of the mock-terrorist team, but that doesn't help us to plan a strategy at all," Raika mused.

"We hardly ever have the chance to form any sort of plan before the games start," Commissioner Kifune said. "Though I will say one thing - the bad guys have never won before, so I'd like to keep that record going. Lan, Raika, you'll be up against your friend, but don't hold back. Same goes to you, Chaud."

"Aren't you not supposed to encourage me at this point?" Chaud wondered. "Since I'm on the opposing team and all?"

"That doesn't mean I can't wish you luck," the commissioner laughed.

With that said, he dismissed all three of them from his office. As they were walking down the halls toward the lift, Chaud began to wonder who he would be working with - he hoped they weren't complete strangers, but the chances of the randomly-selected members being people he knew were small.

"So . . ."

He looked up and glanced at Lan, who was trying to look casual and failing.

"Bad guy, eh?" Lan said. "Any ideas about what's gonna happen?"

"No more than you," Chaud replied, already seeing what Lan was trying to do and countering with a half-smirk. "I'll know more when my teammates contact me. And no, I won't tell either of you anything."

"How did you know I was going to ask too?" Raika wondered.

"It's pretty obvious you'd try. No matter how much the two of you badger me over the next few days, I'm not spilling a thing."

"I will not either, so don't bother," ProtoMan warned MegaMan and SearchMan, who sighed and rolled their eyes.

Chaud kept an eye out for any sort of contact over the next few days - mysterious emails, strange notes, people looking at him oddly, anything could happen. He was rewarded for his patience when, two days after he'd been told about his role as a bad guy, he received an email from a blocked sender.

Normally he wouldn't bother getting ProtoMan to open such an email, but they'd both been expecting something like this. The email told them to go to the park and wait for someone to show up. They would know who was coming to meet them because there was a code phrase to use, which had been included in the email.

So Chaud went to the park and sat on a bench, keeping an eye out for anyone who looked like they could be his teammates.

Twelve minutes later, a woman in a trench coat paused in front of him.

"Curiosity killed the cat," she said.

"But satisfaction brought it back," Chaud replied.

The woman nodded and sat down next to him. She pulled down the collar on her trench coat, revealing herself to be none other than Manabe, superintendent of the Net Police.

"I didn't think you'd get picked," Chaud commented, surprised. "So the bad guy selection really is random."

"Aside from you, yes," Manabe replied, smiling down at him. "I've been elected as the leader of our team of mock-terrorists, mainly because I happen to be the highest-ranked officer on the team. Misaki was also selected to be a member."

Chaud sighed in relief. "Well, I know two of you, at least," he mumbled.

"Oh? Were you worried about working with strangers?"

He pursed his lips and looked away. "I don't really like working with people I don't know too well," Chaud admitted quietly.

Manabe put a hand on his shoulder. "That's alright," she told him gently. "It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Mm."

"We had to wait to contact you, in case it raised any questions," Manabe told him, taking her hand off his shoulder. "War games starts in three days, but we have plenty of time to come up with a plan. We already have a goal in mind, though."

"Goal?" Chaud repeated, glancing up.

"Yes. The mock-terrorist group always has to have some sort of goal in mind, whether it be taking over a certain building or just causing as much chaos as possible. Thanks to the cooperation of SciLab for this year's war games, we're able to branch out with our goal this time."

"SciLab is taking part too?" Chaud asked.

"Not actively, but yes. They've copied and created a digital version of an entire section of this city, and are ready to materialise it into a large-scale dimensional area that will be activated several miles out from the real city. Since we're being given a fake city to conduct war games in, we can do anything we please to it - and that includes destroying it," Manabe explained. "Our goal this time is to destroy the entire fake city. If we can achieve that, our team will win war games, and since the bad guys have never won before . . . well, let's just say that we have our ace, and I have faith we can win."

She smiled at him, and that left Chaud with no doubts that she considered him and ProtoMan to be the bad guys' ace. He wondered whether or not they would be able to live up to their expectations, but his insecurities weren't the point here.

"So I can Cross Fuse any time you need me to?" Chaud asked. "Since we'll be inside a dimensional area and all."

"Unfortunately, no," Manabe said. "We're acting as though this is real life, remember, and the dimensional area that will already be there is only for the fake city. You're on our team, and that means you can't ask for a dimensional area because you're not a Net Saver - Lan and Raika, on the other hand, will likely ask for a dimensional area. Once they do, you'll be able to Cross Fuse as well."

"Is it just a mock-up?" ProtoMan wondered. "They ask for a dimensional area and pretend one has just been activated, even though it's already there?"

"They're going for realism, so SciLab will be activating a second dimensional area underneath the first," Manabe explained. "But like I said, you'll have to wait until Lan or Raika ask for it. We may be the bad guys, but we still have to follow the rules of the game."

"Understood," Chaud agreed, with a nod.

"The game ends when one side wins," Manabe went on. "For us, that means achieving our goal. For the Net Police, that means capturing every single member of the mock-terrorist team. Once a member gets caught, they're officially out of the game, but as long as even a single member is still active, the games continue. I believe the longest war game we've had so far was six years ago, when the mock-terrorists managed to hide in the city for almost three weeks."

"Wow . . ." Chaud breathed. "These games can last that long?"

"Don't worry, we don't plan on making this one last as long as that," Manabe assured him. "If we can manage it, we'll end the game in a few days - destroying a digital city shouldn't be too difficult, especially with the skills we have on our side. We can't underestimate our opponents, though."

Chaud nodded as she stood up. Manabe glanced around as if she were checking for anyone listening in - which was very likely, because he'd been pestered by Lan and Raika for the past couple of days - and then she looked back down at him.

"You'll get to meet everyone on our team tomorrow," she told him. "I'll send you another email from the same blocked address, and we'll meet up to discuss our plans properly."

"Got it," Chaud replied.

Manabe pulled up the collar of her trench coat and walked off, leaving Chaud sitting on the park bench.

" . . . This just got very interesting," ProtoMan commented.

 **OOOOOO**

The reason why I'm using the Japanese names for the commissioner and superintendent is because those are the names that I know best for them. I've honestly watched the Japanese sub more than the English dub, and even if I'm using English names for most of the characters, I like the Japanese names for those two better than I do their English names.

Plus their English names are . . . well, slightly difficult to spell. It might just be me, but I can't quite remember how to spell the names and I have to check a lot to see if I've written them right, so I just went with the names I know I can spell.

Anyway, we've got Chaud and ProtoMan acting as the bad guys!

This is gonna be one of those longer 'parts' with more than two chapters. I'm not sure if it'll be like _Proto-13_ and have three chapters, or if the content that I wanna write will end up generating more, but I'm pretty excited to write this 'part' even if it ends up being the longest in this fic.

Read and review!


	16. War Games, Part 2

Haha, I kinda forgot that I moderate reviews on my account, so some of your reviews ended up showing up on this fic really late . . .

My bad, guys. I'll check the reviews thing regularly just in case anyone writes a review so you're not forced to wait a day or two for that review to show up.

Anyway, speaking of reviews, Emily P - I'm glad I could make you feel that way while reading _Unbreakable Bond_! And I'm also happy that someone else agrees with my views of Shuseki Blaze, worst father of all time he is (at least in this fandom).

And thank you to Rosen, too. It took me and Cin a while to come up with the full concept of the colourblindness - basically how it would work, what Chaud and ProtoMan would see, why they were colourblind, and I've looked up what different colours should be like in black and white so I can figure out how these guys see while they're in Cross Fusion. It's nice when people can see the effort put into something and even nicer when they point it out, it makes me all happy to know that someone's spotted that.

Moving on, we're skipping ahead to the actual start of _War Games_ \- last chapter was sort of a 'prologue' type of chapter, setting up what's gonna happen in these next few chapters. I'm still on the fence as to how many chapters this will actually be, since I have a lot of ideas for how I can make this work, but I do have the basic plot down, so no need to worry.

[insert 'that's when I worry the most' here]

Pfff, I love making stupid references. First it was _Avatar_ and now it's the _Pokemon_ anime. I'm a fucking nerd.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

The battlefield, such as it was, was a bare plot of land that no one owned. The Net Police had gotten permission from the city's council to use it in war games, and the dimensional area would be activated over it - the entire wasteland spanned around six miles across in all directions, so SciLab had scanned and copied data for six miles of DenTech City and would 'download' it all into the dimensional area as soon as it had been activated.

Manabe had taken her team - consisting of three detectives (one of whom was Misaki), six officers, one Net Saver, and herself - down to the site before anyone else got there and had hidden them behind some rocks that looked suspiciously like rubble so no one would be able to see them when they all arrived for the fake city to be activated.

They didn't have to wait long. Not fifteen minutes after they'd hidden themselves, the Net Police arrived in force (most of them were taking part in war games, but for practicality's sake, some of the Net Police and Net Savers had to be left out in case a real crime or emergency happened) with several scientists including Dr. Hikari and Famous from SciLab tagging along with vans housing advanced dimensional area equipment.

Chaud didn't know all the details, but he did know that to make a dimensional area that was six miles wide in every direction, they would need a lot of power. The dimensional generators at SciLab would take care of activating the actual area, while the equipment that the scientists had brought to the site would boost its base power so it would cover a wider area. They would then use the same equipment to download the fake city into the area.

He was just hoping that a digital building wouldn't get dropped on any of them by accident.

Misaki, who noticed his sudden uneasiness, patted his back consolingly.

"Don't worry, we've all received a map of the fake city," the Net Saver detective assured him. "It's a safety precaution. Manabe's got us hiding in a spot where a building is set to materialise, but it'll materialise around us rather than on us."

"That's a relief, then," Chaud said quietly.

Misaki nodded and peered around the edge of the rubble rocks, checking on their opponents. They had chosen a spot relatively close to where the Net Police would set up their base camp, because Manabe knew that the commissioner wouldn't expect the mock-terrorists to be so close. This wouldn't be the location of their own base camp, but it was a good spot to hide until the games began properly.

Several minutes after everyone had arrived, a bright light streaked across the sky from the direction of the city. A second light joined with it from the SciLab vans, and they both formed a blinding light for a moment before spreading out in what was probably the largest dimensional area that had ever been created by humans (the Darkloids were another matter entirely, but while they couldn't maintain such a large area without having to recharge the shield constantly, humans could).

Almost immediately afterwards, the scenery around them began to flicker like a TV with static. Through the flickering, Chaud could just make out the basic shapes of various buildings, some of them he actually recognised, and then all of a sudden daylight was blocked by the ceiling of a lobby in a now-empty office building.

"Right," Manabe said, standing up. Everything that had been from the wasteland was now gone as if it had never been there before, and Chaud felt slightly foolish just crouching there with no cover. "War games has now begun. By process of elimination, I'm sure that our enemies have worked out who we are - or at least who some of us are - and they already knew one of our number to start off with. That means they've likely come up with some sort of plan to deal with the people they know or think they know are in this group. Luckily, we've come up with a plan to counter any potential threats to our goal."

She pointed at four of the officers. "Haruto, Kaito, Itsuki, Jirou, scout out our area. We have maps, but that's nothing in comparison to real-life knowledge. It's better to know what this place looks like before we try to destroy it." She then pointed to two of the detectives and the other two officers. "Daiki, Ryuu, Izumi, Reiko, you'll be with me heading toward our base camp. Once we reach it, we'll set up and fortify it." Finally, she turned her attention to Misaki and Chaud. "Misaki and Chaud, scout out our enemies. Find out what you can and report back to us."

"Yes ma'am!" the mock-terrorist group chanted as one.

They all rushed to their duties, the three groups running off in different directions.

Chaud followed Misaki through a side door in the empty office building, and let out a gasp of surprise when he was shoved back out of sight, Misaki pressing himself against him to hide both of them. Chaud managed to look around the side of the doorframe and spotted what the detective had seen - a group of Net Police making their way through the alley where the side door opened out into.

They waited until the coast was clear and made their way out cautiously. ProtoMan and PrisMan kept an eye out behind their operators, projecting their hologram images onto their shoulders like always.

Misaki glanced down at Chaud and gestured questioningly in the direction the group of Net Police had gone in. Chaud nodded, and they both followed the path until they found the group again, ducking out of sight before they were spotted. They peered around the corner and watched the group as they paused to take in their surroundings.

"Looks pretty real, doesn't it?" one officer commented, knocking his fist against a nearby street lamp. "Feels real, too. SciLab has outdone themselves this time."

"We're not here to marvel at the scenery," one of the older officers scolded him. "You heard what the commissioner said - one of our enemies this time around is the superintendent herself, not to mention they've got that Blaze kid with them, too."

"I'm not worried about the kid, he's not allowed to Cross Fuse until the Hikari kid and that Sharonian Net Saver ask for a dimensional area," the first officer scoffed. "We can take a twelve-year old."

"You wanna take on the superintendent, then?" another officer deadpanned. The first officer choked and started stammering out excuses.

Meanwhile, Chaud and Misaki exchanged a glance. He knew just from that look that Misaki had had the same idea he'd had, and they nodded to each other before silently splitting up - Misaki snuck over to the other side of the street they'd followed the Net Police group into, while Chaud stayed where he was and made sure the group wasn't about to see Misaki.

As soon as the group started moving again, Chaud and Misaki moved in.

The first officer was lagging behind, muttering something about not being able to fight Manabe. Misaki crept up behind him and silently grabbed a hold of him, dragging him out of sight while he struggled, sound muffled by Misaki's hand over his mouth. Chaud shot after them as Misaki took the officer into a nearby alley.

"Right, well, I guess this'll be good enough," Misaki said to Chaud, once he'd caught up with them. "You didn't happen to bring any duct tape, did you?"

"Why would I have something like that?" Chaud wondered, tilting his head at the detective.

Misaki laughed and shook his head. "Nevermind, kiddo," he said. He turned his attention back to the officer, who was looking at him with wide eyes. "You're now officially a prisoner of our merry band of anarchists. If you attempt to inform your fellow officers of your whereabouts or ours, we will kill you. Understand?"

"Wait what," Chaud said.

"It's just pretend," ProtoMan reminded him in a whisper.

"I sure hope so."

The officer they'd captured was now glaring into Misaki's eyes, but he nodded to show he understood. Misaki didn't take his hand off the officer's mouth, though, just in case. You could never be too careful after all.

"We'll keep him with us for now," Misaki told Chaud. "Manabe should be sending us an email any second now, telling us-"

Chaud and Misaki's PETs beeped, alerting them to emails.

"-when they've reached base camp," Misaki finished, thoroughly satisfied. "Right then. ProtoMan, Chaud, lead the way - I'll keep this guy quiet."

 **OOOOOO**

Considering what I have planned for the rest of this 'part', I may end up with around about four chapters . . . which is one more than _Proto-13_ had. Woo, this is gonna be awesome!

Who likes how serious they're taking these war games, even though they're literally just games? Like Manabe said, they've gotta pretend it's all real, and that's why Misaki just threatened to kill Mr. Ego back there. And our merry band of anarchists, as Misaki described them, are on the move already.

Yup, Manabe doesn't fuck around when it comes to this kinda shit.

Next chapter I may have an 'interrogation' scene, though you probably won't see it since Chaud's not likely to be very bothered with that kinda stuff. Or allowed near it, since he's a kid, even if it's all pretend. But whichever one it is, we'll get into some real action next chapter.

Well, okay, that's sort of a lie - the real action, what I want to write so badly, will happen during the last or second-to-last (if this ends up being five chapters long) chapter. But we will see some form of action next chapter.

Read and review!


	17. War Games, Part 3

Ugh, the internet's being a bitch and won't work . . . dunno why. Oh well. Worst comes to worst I suppose I can always just watch some more _Fairy Tail_. . .

Oh yeah, I've gotten some DVDs of that anime, and I LOVE IT SO FAR. HOLY SHIT. ONE OF THE BEST ANIMES EVER.

You guys can probably expect some sort of reference to that show in this fic - whether or not it'll be super obvious or somewhat subtle is up to me, but hey, depending on what I wanna do and whether or not I wanna write some more insanity, you may end up being able to read the brain child of my insane combinations. If not, then just expect some high-level fights to happen with a lot of explosions and property damage.

Moving on.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"I still can't believe this is our base camp," Chaud muttered.

"Well, it works for us, and it's easy to defend," ProtoMan pointed out mildly.

"But why does it have to be an ice cream parlour?"

"Uh . . . the superintendent likes ice cream?"

Chaud sighed and resumed his watch - he was looking out the window for any sign of the Net Police walking down the street. They'd made base camp in a popular ice cream parlour in the shopping district of DenTech City, because for whatever reason, SciLab had decided to copy that district into the fake city.

But however he felt about using an ice cream shop as a base camp, he had to admit that ProtoMan was right. This place was easy to defend, since there was only the front door and the back door, and it had good lookout points; windows giving them a full view of the streets all around them. He was currently looking through the front window with ProtoMan, both of them keeping an eye on opposite ends of the street.

Manabe was with Misaki and Ryuu in a back room, 'interrogating' their prisoner. Normally if a person was captured during war games, then they were out and couldn't take part any further in war games, but the rules for capture were slightly different when it came to the mock-terrorist team.

Only Net Police could capture and take out enemy players, while the only way for the mock-terrorists to take out an opposing player was if their goal specifically included taking down the Net Police (even if it was just a means to an end).

Since this time around their goal was solely to destroy the fake city, the mock-terrorist team couldn't take out any opposing players. That didn't mean they couldn't capture and hold them prisoner, though.

Several minutes after Chaud and ProtoMan's brief conversation, Manabe and Misaki came out of the back room. Ryuu had obviously been left behind to guard their prisoner.

Manabe drew everyone's attention. "Listen up, everyone," she called. As soon as they were all looking at her, she continued. "We now have a vague idea of what the Net Police's plans are - and I say vague only because the Net Police themselves don't have much of a clue as to what they're doing either. They couldn't get any information out of the one person they knew was on our team, so the Net Police don't know anything about our goal and therefore were unable to come up with a strategy to take us down."

"So what are their plans, then?" Daiki asked.

"Divide and conquer, more or less. Commissioner Kifune has split the Net Police into teams and has assigned each of them to different parts of the fake city, and they're combing through the streets looking for any sign of us. Our prisoner in there doesn't know exactly where all the teams are, but he did know the whereabouts of those in the same vicinity as his own. Based on that information, we can figure out where the rest of the teams may be. Reiko, Jirou, you and your Navis work on that. While you do that, Daiki and Izumi can show us the images they took of the fake city, and we can work out a plan to destroy it."

"I thought we already had a plan," Chaud said, raising his hand.

"We do, but we need to adjust it to fit our terrain," Manabe explained. "If need be, we'll discard the original plan entirely - it was just a basic idea anyway."

The next few hours were spent in rotation. They took turns to go on watch (though Chaud noticed his on-watch times were shorter than everyone else's - ProtoMan suggested it was because he was the youngest person there and joked that he was getting the same treatment because he was elderly by Navi standards) and paid close attention to Manabe's plans, which were adjusted according to any additional speculations that Reiko and Jirou gave them.

They didn't need to change the original plans too much, however. The basic idea was still the exact same - destroy the entire fake city - but how it would be carried out was something that needed to be flexible.

By nightfall, Manabe's plans were finalised, and they were almost ready to begin operations.

The mock-terrorist team was once again split up, this time into pairs. Manabe took Daiki as her partner, and Haruto and Izumi were paired up next. Reiko and Kaito were also paired together, and so were Chaud and Misaki - apparently Manabe had taken notice of how well they worked together and decided to keep them as a pair. Meanwhile, Itsuki, Ryuu and Jirou were tasked with defending their base and keeping their prisoner in check.

Manabe correctly guessed that the Net Police would assume the mock-terrorist team would begin their operation in the middle of the night, so she kept everyone inside the base and would send them all out to different parts of the city at first light.

Chaud was woken up, not by the rising sun, but by ProtoMan whispering that it was time to get up and begin operations.

There had been no incidents during the night, thanks to the watch rotation that Manabe had set up, and so the pairs of mock-terrorists set out to their assigned areas of destruction armed with newly-marked digital maps showing the theorised patrol routes of the Net Police.

Misaki led the way over to their section - which was coincidentally near the copied university that Famous's ex-girlfriend, Makoto, worked at.

"How we destroy the fake city is entirely up to us as pairs," Misaki said, reminding Chaud of what Manabe had told them before they went to sleep last night. "If I remember correctly, to make this more realistic, SciLab have placed several CopyBots inside of the university - eight, I think."

"Transfer our Navis into two of them and steal the rest for our teammates?" Chaud suggested.

Misaki nodded. "But first we need to get into the university, which won't be easy."

PrisMan appeared on his shoulder, nodding his agreement. "From what Reiko and Jirou and their Navis have figured out, there're no less than two teams of Net Police officers and detectives in this specific area."

"So we avoid both and break in, then steal the CopyBots," ProtoMan said. He'd already appeared on Chaud's shoulder. "Avoiding them should be easy enough. Getting out will be the problem, especially since we'll be four instead of two, not to mention the remaining CopyBots."

"We can't risk the Net Police using them, but we also can't destroy them, since that's against the rules," Misaki said. "I propose we sneak in, transfer our Navis into the CopyBots, hide the remaining CopyBots, and then get back out. We'll send Manabe a message telling her where the rest of the 'Bots are so she can decide what to do with them. Meanwhile, we'll make a start on destroying our section of the fake city."

"Got it," Chaud agreed.

ProtoMan had been right - avoiding the two teams of Net Police patrolling the area was easy, as was locating the lab where the CopyBots were. Misaki had never been inside the university, so Chaud led the way, having been there before.

The CopyBots were in two opposite rows in a side-room. Chaud and Misaki transferred ProtoMan and PrisMan into two of them and the now-foursome worked on hiding the other six CopyBots. They couldn't stash them anywhere inside the lab, since that would be too obvious, so they ended up dragging the CopyBots over to the arts department of the university and hiding them inside what looked like a music classroom.

"This would be a little more realistic if there were people walking around," Chaud huffed as he dragged his CopyBot behind a set of drums. These things were heavier than they looked - he had no idea how Dingo had managed to carry Iris's CopyBot back in Beyondard.

ProtoMan, who wasn't a twelve-year-old human, was easily carrying two CopyBots over his shoulders. He set his two down under a couple of desks and arranged them so that they couldn't be seen from the door. Then he glanced at Chaud.

"Real people or data copies?" he wondered. "Because if there were real people around, that would make the whole 'fake city' concept slightly redundant."

"I meant fake people, duh," Chaud retorted. "Digital copies of people walking around or doing stuff. This just feels like a ghost town, not counting the Net Police wandering the streets."

"It is slightly eerie," ProtoMan agreed. "But think of it this way - the city will be easier to destroy because we know it is empty of civilians. If we had to deal with them, even if they were fake digital copies, we would hesitate to complete our goal. The Net Police are another matter entirely, but we know that broken digital buildings cannot harm them because the data will break up and dissolve the moment the building is destroyed."

"Fair enough, I suppose." Chaud shrugged.

Once they'd hidden the CopyBots and told Manabe where to find them, they snuck back out of the university.

"And now comes the fun part," Misaki muttered. He exchanged a glance with Chaud, and grinned. "You ready to break some stuff, kiddo?"

Chaud looked at him for a moment, and then smiled.

"I'm beginning to enjoy being the bad guy," he informed Misaki. "So, yeah. Let's go destroy the entire city."

"You worry me sometimes," ProtoMan told Chaud.

"Sometimes?"

"All the time."

Chaud grinned at him. He was suddenly feeling very uncharacteristically rebellious, and he looked around for a good target to start with. He spotted a nearby bank and pointed it out to his three companions.

"Let's break that first," he suggested. "It's the biggest building that isn't the university that we can destroy. Plus I've always been _protecting_ banks, it'd be interesting to _destroy_ one."

" . . . While I'm happy you're finally getting into this, I'm also mildly concerned about how willing you are to destroy a bank," Misaki commented.

"It's all in the name of completing our goal," Chaud said.

"He has a point," PrisMan said.

"Don't encourage him," Misaki sighed.

"Can a fake bank be hacked into if it's made out of materialised data?" Chaud wondered out loud.

"Chaud no," ProtoMan said, horrified.

"I don't see why not," PrisMan replied. "Misaki, sir, why don't you and Chaud try hacking into the bank while ProtoMan and I break the walls? This could be useful information for future reference."

"Why are you both suddenly so enthusiastic about this?" Misaki demanded, exasperated and looking as though he was about to have a panic attack. "Chaud, you were the one who kept wondering why we were all acting like this was real, what changed?"

"Dunno," Chaud replied, "but I wanna destroy the bank."

"Detective Misaki," ProtoMan said, very calmly, "I am blaming you entirely for this."

"Why're you blaming me!?"

Despite Misaki's sudden unwillingness, not to mention ProtoMan's extreme concern, Chaud and PrisMan managed to convince their respective partners to go ahead with the bank's destruction. They broke into it, avoiding the Net Police teams who almost managed to spot them, and Chaud and Misaki immediately went over to the nearest computers they could find.

For Chaud, hacking into a system - even if it was a digitally copied fake - was weirdly easy. He knew his way around computers well enough to be able to get into any network he wanted if he put his mind to it, even if ProtoMan wasn't assisting him. Misaki wasn't as good, but he could still hack into a system if he had to. While the two humans worked on destroying the fake network of the bank, their Navis activated their weapons and began working on destroying the actual bank itself.

But eventually the physical destruction of the bank was obstructing their ability to hack into the bank's network (though this at least proved that the fake city could be hacked into), so Chaud abandoned that and decided to help ProtoMan out.

"Long Sword, download!" he announced.

ProtoMan had been using two Proto Swords, but as soon as the Long Sword was downloaded, he got more aggressive towards the fake building. Chaud suspected it was mostly because he just wanted this weirdness to be over rather than a sudden burst of enthusiasm for wrecking the place.

Their destroying the bank gained the attention of the Net Police in the area, but they had finished by the time the Net Police got there, so there was nothing that could be done.

"Hello there!" Misaki called through the rapidly-dissolving bank. "Sorry, but you're too late to save the bank, we've already destroyed it, as you can see."

"What is your goal, you villains?" one of the Net Police officers shouted.

Misaki glanced at Chaud. "Should we tell them?" he asked.

"They've probably guessed by now," Chaud replied, shrugging. He looked back out at the Net Police. "You'll find out when we've brought down the entire city on your heads!"

"So your goal this time is to destroy the city? That's horrible, how could you do something like this!?"

Chaud found himself enjoying this a little bit too much. "We're horrible people!" he called gleefully. "That's true! And soon everyone'll know how horrible we are, just you wait! We're gonna destroy the entire city and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"I think you're going a little far," ProtoMan deadpanned quietly.

"Shush, I'm enjoying this."

"That's what worries me."

 **OOOOOO**

Chaud starts to go a bit crazy with this newfound ability to do whatever the hell he pleases, and Misaki realises he has created a monster. He's just playing along in the last bit because that's how it's supposed to go.

So, yeah, Chaud going nuts like this is basically how OOCness comes into play. ProtoMan'll get his turn, don't worry, but for now have some crazy Chaud.

Next chapter we're doing another skip - to the near-end of the war games, when almost everyone in the mock-terrorist team has been captured. Obviously Chaud and ProtoMan will be among the last to be captured (they may not even get captured, who knows), just because I get to write both of them going nuts.

So this 'part' ended up being more than three chapters long after all! It'll either be four or five depending on what happens next chapter or how fast I can make ProtoMan go nuts too.

Read and review!


	18. War Games, Part 4

So, this chapter is either the last or second-to-last chapter of _War Games_. After this we'll be getting into the follow-up 'part' to _Exhaustion_ , which is unnamed as of yet . . . hmmm . . .

Hey, what do you guys think it should be called? I'm currently mainly running on empty for title ideas because the follow-up was basically 'if people want it I'll do it', and also I'm kinda still a bit sick so my creativeness is more or less solely focused on writing the story rather than coming up with chapter titles . . .

It's weird, I know, but I'm getting a bit better (I hope) and I think I'm well enough to be able to write this much at the very least, but to come up with a title . . . meh.

So, yeah, anyone wanna be the namer of the follow-up 'part' to _Exhaustion_? I'll give you credit if I can't come up with anything I like.

Moving on, we'll get into this before I end up making this AN as long as the chapter itself.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Three days had passed since Chaud and Misaki had hidden the CopyBots and discovered that the fake city's networks could be hacked into. They'd managed to destroy most of the fake city in that time, using the hidden CopyBots after Manabe and Reiko had retrieved them from the fake university.

Unfortunately, the Net Police had come prepared to deal with Navis using CopyBots, and they'd equipped themselves with several Hyper-Magnetrons in advance. They'd used those Magnetrons on the eight CopyBots until only PrisMan's remained (ProtoMan had been second-to-last and had only gotten caught because he'd been cornered by four Net Police officers at once), but eventually even PrisMan was forced back into the cyberworld. But all the chaos and destruction that the mock-terrorist group had caused while they had the CopyBots had allowed them to almost complete their goal.

They'd also lost most of their team. Even Misaki had been caught, and by the fifth day, only Manabe and Chaud were left.

The two of them had retreated into a warehouse full of construction vehicles, and were now cornered by the Net Police - looking out the windows gave Chaud a very clear view of Commissioner Kifune and his fellow Net Savers and friends, Lan and Raika, along with their many enemies.

"Chaud," Manabe called, "come here. I've got a plan."

Chaud slipped away from the window - the two opposing teams were currently in a stalemate - and joined Manabe near the entrance to the warehouse.

"What is it?" he asked.

Manabe's eyes shifted, and Chaud followed her gaze to a construction machine that resembled some sort of robot which could be driven by a human and a Navi. He couldn't tell if it was for building or for demolition, but it was probably a mix of both.

"Can you work out how to drive that?" Manabe asked him.

"If ProtoMan helps, I can probably figure it out," Chaud replied, turning back to Manabe. "Why?"

"I'm going to give myself up - no, listen to me," she said, when Chaud opened his mouth to protest. "I'll be a distraction. As soon as I'm clear, you bust out of this warehouse while driving that construction machine, and wreck as much of the remaining city as you can before you get caught. If you _can_ destroy everything, then great, but don't overdo it."

Chaud, who had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, was confused. "What do you mean by that?" he wondered.

"She means don't go crazy and try to collapse a building on the Net Police," ProtoMan deadpanned. "Again."

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but you did occasionally go a bit overboard," Manabe admitted. "Just focus on our goal, alright?"

"Well . . . alright. But do you have to give yourself up?"

Manabe smiled at him. "If they're distracted by me, they won't notice you until it's too late," she explained. "And you've proved yourself very efficient at destroying things lately, so I have faith that you - both of you - can pull this off. But, like I said, don't overdo it."

"Yes ma'am," Chaud agreed, mock-saluting.

"Never do that again," ProtoMan sighed. "That was _terrible_."

"I'm not a soldier, you know."

"You're a lunatic is what you are," his Navi grumbled. ProtoMan looked at Manabe. "I will attempt to keep him in check, don't worry."

While Chaud rolled his eyes, Manabe nodded. She went over to the doors and paused, then glanced over her shoulder at them.

"Good luck," was the last thing she said before she opened the doors, shouting that she was giving herself in to the Net Police waiting outside, and then closed the doors after her.

Chaud immediately rushed over to the construction machine and clambered inside, quickly locating a jack-in port for ProtoMan and then settling into the driver's seat. There were a lot of buttons and levels and what looked like two joysticks on either side of him, and as soon as ProtoMan had turned on the power, he figured out which button would close the doors and as soon as he pressed it, he was left in total darkness.

Until ProtoMan activated the 3D holographic screens, which filled the cockpit with artificial light. One screen showed ProtoMan himself, tapping away at the cyberworld control system of the construction machine, while others showed different views of the outside of the machine.

The one directly in front of Chaud was showing him what was in front of him, while others showed different angles.

"Hey, can you show me what's happening outside the warehouse?" Chaud asked ProtoMan.

ProtoMan frowned at the control system for a moment, trying to work it out, and then he managed to bring up the warehouse's cameras - one of the screens around Chaud changed its view to that camera and showed him what was happening outside.

Manabe was being led away by a couple of officers, and Commissioner Kifune was walking with them. Most of the Net Police were distracted by the appearance of the leader of the mock-terrorists, including Lan and Raika. Not too many were paying attention to the warehouse anymore.

Chaud smirked.

"I do not like the look on your face," ProtoMan commented, glancing up from the control system. "Lately that has meant nothing but sheer chaos. And also at one point an attempt to murder your former allies."

"I was never intending to harm anyone and you know it," Chaud told him, shaking his head. "I only wanted to scare them."

"By dropping _seven floors of concrete on their heads_?"

"The buildings are all fake anyway, who cares? No one was hurt."

"These war games have gotten to your head and you have gone completely insane," ProtoMan muttered.

"Look on the bright side, at least I can't get arrested for this."

"That's a _bright side_?" ProtoMan asked incredulously.

Chaud declined to answer and instead looked back at the screen showing him the outside of the warehouse.

"Manabe's out of sight," he reported.

ProtoMan heaved a sigh. "I suppose we had better get this thing moving," he said. "The joysticks either side of you control the machine's movements - I'll handle everything else."

"Why can't I destroy stuff?"

"Because you've already wrecked literally half of this city, and I do not trust you to not attack your fellow humans at this moment in time."

"You have so little faith in me."

"I currently have _no_ faith in you, so please just start the machine."

Chaud couldn't hold back a giggle, and he activated the movement joysticks. It was easy to figure out how to work them (since there were only two of them) and he pushed both joysticks forward as far as they would go so the machine shot forward at top speed straight away.

Within moments, he was crashing through the doors of the fake warehouse. The Net Police scattered in terror when he went straight for them - though ProtoMan quickly slowed down the machine a little bit, before they actually hit anyone.

He wrenched the joysticks to the left and the machine spun around (Chaud almost fell out of the seat but managed to stay on it). ProtoMan stopped trying to control his speed and instead focused on controlling the rest of the construction machine to attack and destroy every single non-living thing in sight as Chaud drove near it.

In the space of a few minutes, they managed to wreck three buildings - including the warehouse itself - and were heading for a fourth when two figures appeared in front of the speeding machine.

Lan and Raika. They stood watching the machine speed towards them for a moment, and then Raika brought out his PET.

"They are asking for a dimensional area," ProtoMan warned Chaud.

"NOPE!" Chaud shouted, and he forced the joysticks as far as they would go.

"Chaud, what are you doing? Don't run them over. Do _not_ run them over. _Chaud_!"

They were close enough to see Lan and Raika's shocked expressions before the two of them dove out of the way. Chaud drove between them and spun the machine around, causing it to kick up a storm of dust, and he paused to watch Lan and Raika slowly get up.

They exchanged a glance with each other, and Chaud grinned - and then pushed the joysticks forward again.

" _What did I just say_!?" ProtoMan roared. He stole control away from Chaud, muttering to himself angrily, and forced the machine to veer away abruptly before it got anywhere close to Lan and Raika.

"Hey, I wasn't gonna hit them!" Chaud protested, trying to get control back. "It's like the thing with the building again, it's just to scare them! I'm trying to stop them from getting a dimensional area."

"This is not a _building_ , Chaud, it is a _machine_ \- and fake though it is, it can still hurt them if you ram it into them at full speed!"

"I wasn't going to! I swear!"

Chaud managed to get control again, and, ignoring his Navi's shouting, spun the machine around to go at Lan and Raika. Lan had been about to speak into his PET but as soon as he saw the machine heading for him and Raika once again, he screamed and ran in the opposite direction, Raika following close behind.

He chased them for almost half a minute before Lan and Raika seemed to remember that they could do something other than run away. They couldn't ask for a dimensional area while they were running for their lives, so they twisted around, aimed carefully, and jacked their Navis into the construction machine.

Out of the corner of his eye, Chaud saw MegaMan and SearchMan materialise on either side of ProtoMan, who was working frantically to slow down the machine, but was having no luck because Chaud kept blocking his attempts.

"What is going on here?" SearchMan demanded, grabbing ProtoMan's shoulder to force him away from the control system.

"I'm trying to stop him, let go!" ProtoMan snapped, wrenching his shoulder out of SearchMan's grip so he could get back to the control system. "He's gone mad, I'm trying to make this thing slow down, but he's blocking me!"

"He- he wouldn't actually try to _kill_ Lan and Raika, would he?" MegaMan asked, horrified.

"I'm not trying to kill them!" Chaud cheerfully informed him, startling the Navis. "I just wanna scare them!"

"He said he's trying to stop them from getting a dimensional area," ProtoMan told SearchMan and MegaMan. "I do not believe a word he says. My operator is currently insane."

"I'm just as sane as the rest of you."

"That's not very comforting, considering we have Lan on our team," SearchMan sighed. "Chaud, calm down a little. You're taking this a bit too far, aren't you?"

"No I'm not!" Chaud exclaimed, frustrated. "This is what war games is about, right? If I'm pretending to be the bad guy, then why shouldn't I do things like this? A real terrorist isn't going to stop when someone politely asks them to, and everyone's been telling me that we're going for realism anyway."

"Wait a moment," ProtoMan said, looking surprised. "This is all an act? Your current insanity, your willingness to destroy everything, even your attempts to murder your friends? It is all for the sake of realism?"

"That's right!"

For several moments, ProtoMan was silent.

And then, very slowly, he began to smile.

"Um," MegaMan said, "ProtoMan? What's with that look? You're kinda scaring me."

"I understand now," ProtoMan said. "It is simply his way of getting into the spirit of war games. I have not been doing that, Chaud, and I apologise for trying to hold you back when I should have been doing the same."

"Don't worry about it," Chaud replied. He glanced at MegaMan and SearchMan. "Hey, we're supposed to be bad guys, so what do bad guys do to good guys who wander into their lairs?"

ProtoMan's smile turned into a shark-like grin, and he activated a Proto Sword on each arm. He didn't give MegaMan and SearchMan a chance to even think about his sudden change of heart, and instead launched straight into a Blade Cyclone that sent both of them flying with identical yells.

As soon as the two Navis had been forced out of the construction machine's cyberworld, ProtoMan turned back to the control system.

"You drive, I destroy," he said to Chaud.

"Shall we play a game?" Chaud replied, with a positively evil grin.

 **OOOOOO**

Right, so this will now officially be five chapters long. I'm gonna try and make the next one definitely the last, since I've kinda accidentally gone way over what I originally wanted to write.

And here I thought it'd only be three chapters long . . . boy was I wrong as hell. But this is incredibly fun to write anyway, so it's fine.

But moving on, we now have Chaud going completely insane and finally managing to get ProtoMan in on the act. He's also the only one left in the mock-terrorist group, and don't worry, we'll get to see him fighting Lan and Raika via Cross Fusion during the next chapter.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the reason why the Net Police surrounding the warehouse have suddenly vanished is because they're not crazy enough to get in the way of a nutcase twelve-year-old driving a machine of mass destruction. Only Lan and Raika are crazy enough to do that, and it's costing them dearly, as you can imagine.

This is fun as _hell_.

Read and review!


	19. War Games, Part 5

Actually forgot to mention this in the AN last chapter . . .

Emily P. Hi there! Um, I appreciate the reviews and all, but there's no need to do extra reviews just to correct spelling/grammer mistakes in previous reviews. I can read your things just fine and I don't mind if you don't capitalise letters or if you miss out words or whatever. I guess I could technically just not approve those reviews since I moderate them all, but I'd rather not have to delete someone's review, especially since you're not flaming the story or anything, just correcting your own mistakes.

But it's a little unnecessary since I - and probably anyone who's reading them - don't really mind them. I swear I don't mean to offend you or anything, I'm just . . . it's a bit weird to read someone correcting themself via reviews.

Uh, moving on from that. This will (hopefully) be the final chapter of _War Games_. I say 'hopefully' because I originally planned for three, ended up with four, and am now writing a fifth. I'm so weird, I swear . . .

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Just under half of the buildings were still left standing now, and it was all thanks to Chaud and ProtoMan driving the construction machine all over. Sure, he was mostly chasing Lan and Raika, but that didn't mean he couldn't go for his team's original goal at the same time.

Any time his friends so much as tried to take out their PETs or pause, he would speed up the machine just enough to freak them out and make them focus on running. And while he did that, ProtoMan was the one who attacked anything they passed by. This was getting really fun and Chaud had a feeling that this year's war games were going to end with a bang.

Well, they would if he had anything to say about it.

Chaud wrenched the joysticks to the right, skidding around a corner as Lan and Raika scrambled up the street. This was one of the streets that the mock-terrorists had started to destroy but had been interrupted by the Net Police showing up to 'arrest' them. Chaud was gonna finish the job.

The holographic screen directly in front of Chaud showed him Lan and Raika running away, and the others showed him the outside of the machine from various angles. One showed a hose-like attachment spitting out fire at the fake digital buildings they sped by.

"WHY DOES THAT THING HAVE A FLAMETHROWER!?" he heard Lan scream. As well as visuals, the screen also gave him audio feed.

"WHO CARES, JUST KEEP RUNNING!" Raika shouted back.

"I believe this is for melting scrap metal," ProtoMan told Chaud. "However, currently it serves its purpose in an entirely different manner. I am enjoying myself very much at the moment."

Chaud gave him a toothy grin. "Glad to see you're finally getting into this," he commented.

ProtoMan nodded, and turned back to the cyberworld control system. Lan and Raika hadn't tried jacking in MegaMan and SearchMan again, not after the way ProtoMan had booted them out before, and there was no way for the two Navis to help their operators right now. There never would be a way, unless they could somehow come up with a way to get a dimensional area while Chaud was chasing them down.

But not a moment later, Chaud made a mistake in his driving - he overshot while he was turning another corner after Lan and Raika, forgetting how fast he was going, and ended up crashing into a wall.

The entire cockpit shuddered and he was thrown out of his seat with a loud yelp, and for several moments all he could do was just lie there, upside down with his legs still dangling on the seat. Several of the screens surrounding him fizzled and died out, leaving only the front display and the screen showing him ProtoMan in the cyberworld.

"Are you alright!?" ProtoMan called, half-panicked.

"Ow," Chaud muttered, pulling himself up. He managed to get back onto the seat and sat there, rubbing his head. "That hurt a lot more than I thought it would . . ."

"The good news is, we've just managed to destroy another building," ProtoMan reported, tapping away at the control system. "The machine is still intact, however."

"Can you start it up again?" Chaud asked him. He glanced at the front display. Lan and Raika had stopped and were looking in his direction with shocked and worried expressions.

Chaud almost laughed. He was fine, it was themselves that they needed to worry about - if only the construction machine could start up again, anyway.

"If I can switch the power from the flamethrower to the engine, and divert fuel from this port here . . ." ProtoMan muttered. " . . . Yes. I can get it moving again. We will lose most of our attacking ability save for the excavator arm."

"That's what can do the most damage anyway, so it's fine," Chaud said. "Power this thing up again, let's give them another shock!"

"On it!" ProtoMan agreed.

The construction machine rumbled around him - even if it this thing was just as fake as the city itself, it sure as heck felt real. Chaud saw Lan and Raika's suddenly-terrified faces and grinned to himself.

As soon as ProtoMan had gotten the power back on, he pushed the joysticks forward and once again went straight for Lan and Raika. They both dove out of the way. This scene was a little bit familiar, but this time, instead of pausing after spinning around, Chaud just went straight for them again.

However, they didn't run away. Instead, they dodged again, splitting up. Chaud couldn't go for both of them, and whoever he didn't go for was likely to call for a dimensional area while the other was being chased, but there wasn't any choice left.

He wrenched the joysticks right and went for Lan.

"Raika is requesting a dimensional area," ProtoMan reported. "Should we turn around?"

"Nah," Chaud decided, now sporting a wicked grin. "We can do more damage Cross Fused anyway, so I say let him."

ProtoMan agreed to that, so they continued chasing Lan until the light of a dimensional area - the second one, formed underneath the first that had helped create the fake digital city - made everyone pause.

Lan's running around had allowed Chaud to get both him and Raika on the front display, so when they both downloaded their Synchro Chips and Cross Fused, Chaud could see it happen. At least he wouldn't get surprised by them.

"Cross Fusion or machine?" he asked ProtoMan.

"The machine can still do some damage, so perhaps- oh."

That didn't sound too good.

Chaud glanced at ProtoMan and wasn't at all surprised to see the control system sparking and flickering in the cyberworld. He sighed.

"Cross Fusion it is," he said, bringing out his PET. He jacked ProtoMan out of the machine's network and then grabbed his own Synchro Chip. "Time for the real fun. Synchro Chip, download!"

"Cross Fusion!" they cried as one.

From the inside of the machine, he knew that Lan and Raika wouldn't be able to see them Cross Fusing, but he had no doubts that they would assume he had done so. They'd probably guess anyway when they saw that the machine had stopped moving.

Chaud and ProtoMan decided they didn't want to waste any time, and burst out of the construction machine using two Proto Swords. Lan and Raika, Cross Fused with MegaMan and SearchMan respectively, jerked back in surprise and couldn't react fast enough when Chaud was suddenly right in their faces with both swords raised for attack.

He swung the swords at his friends and sent them flying into the same digital wall of a nearby building, collapsing that wall but not the building itself.

 _[If we play our cards correctly,]_ ProtoMan said, _[we will be able to wreck the rest of this city while taking down our friends at the same time.]_

That sounded like a very good idea to Chaud.

He casually wandered over to the dissolving rubble of the wall he'd flung his friends into, downloading a Wide Blade and a Long Blade when he stopped. Lan and Raika shoved the dissolving debris off themselves and stood up - Lan had activated his Mega Buster while Raika had downloaded a Vulcan.

"Hi," Chaud said cheerfully, waving his Wide Blade at them.

He didn't give them a chance to respond - they'd probably have started screaming at him for 'going mad' anyway - and instead lunged forward, swinging his Blades at their guts. Lan tried dodging to his right (Chaud's left) and apparently forgot that he was dealing with the Wide Blade, so he ended up getting sliced anyway. Raika was a little more intelligent about his dodge and simply jumped out of the way, landing half a second after Chaud had pulled back his Long Blade.

Chaud quickly stepped forward so he was between them.

 _[Blade Cyclone,]_ ProtoMan told him.

They started spinning - using Blade Cyclone with two Blades would make for an extremely powerful attack - and ended up wrecking the rest of the building in the process. But his real targets dove out of the way again (he needed to figure out some way to stop them from moving around so much, it was getting annoying).

As he came out of the Blade Cyclone, he saw that Lan had just finished charging up his Mega Buster and Raika was taking aim with his Vulcan.

Chaud banished both Blades - shame really, but he had three more of each downloaded specifically for this kind of fight anyway, so it didn't really matter - and quickly downloaded a Guard chip. The charged Mega Buster shot and the multiple attacks from the Vulcan bounced off the shield that materialised around him, and as soon as it had vanished, Chaud activated another Proto Sword and sped towards his friends.

Halfway there, he dug his feet in and threw a Sonic Boom in their direction to keep them busy. While they were dealing with that, he started off again, and as soon as the smoke cleared, he was over their heads with a Wide Sword on either arm. As he landed between them, he slashed down with the two Wide Swords and hit both of them just as his feet touched the ground.

 _[Don't use too many of those, we still need a Wide Sword for the program advance,]_ ProtoMan reminded him.

"I know," Chaud murmured.

Raika recovered first and aimed his Scope Gun at Chaud, but Chaud simply stepped out of the way and allowed the shot to hit Lan instead, who had just managed to scramble back up off the ground.

 _[You'll have to do better than that!]_ ProtoMan taunted Raika and SearchMan.

 _[What is wrong with you two!?]_ SearchMan snapped back.

Chaud flipped backwards out of range when Raika tried to aim his Scope Gun at him again while Lan struggled back up, muttering something obscene. Chaud downloaded a Neo Variable Sword and raised it over his head.

"Duck!" Raika snapped, a moment before Chaud started flinging Sonic Booms in all directions.

Lam almost didn't duck in time, but he didn't look too happy when Raika grabbed his arm and forced him back onto the ground he'd worked so hard to get off of. He did, however, seem grateful when he saw what Chaud was throwing out, and both of them kept their heads down while Chaud gleefully threw Sonic Booms everywhere.

By the time he was finished, he'd destroyed most of the rest of the city aside from a couple of half-standing buildings. As the newly-destroyed buildings dissolved into data, Chaud stopped and banished the Neo Variable so he could look around at his handiwork.

"Just two left," he commented to ProtoMan, a smirk hidden beneath his faceplate.

 _[Program advance?]_ ProtoMan suggsted.

"Why not? May as well end this on a bang," Chaud agreed. He held up both arms and clenched his hands around an imaginery sword. "Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword, download! Program advance, Life Sword!"

As the Life Sword formed in his raised hands, he turned to the last two buildings - they weren't in a convenient line, both of them either side of and several dozen metres away from him, but the range of Life Sword was pretty wide so it didn't matter.

"Oh, no you don't!" he heard someone shout behind him.

Chaud glanced over his shoulder and saw that Lan and Raika had gotten up - both had downloaded their own program advances, Lan the Hyper Burst and Raika the Infinite Vulcan - and were aiming directly for him.

He grinned, and decided to get creative.

Instead of throwing the Life Sword to the ground like always, he brought it to his side and spun around, swinging the Life Sword in a full circle. The resulting blast from the program advance not only hit the two last buildings, but also Lan and Raika, who didn't even get a chance to fire off their own program advances before they were hit and flung backwards.

For several moments there was nothing but the light of the Life Sword, and when it died down, the only thing left standing was the Cross Fused Chaud and ProtoMan. Lan and Raika had been beaten and were just Crossing Out, and the buildings were now just dissolving pixels.

The Net Police - including Commissioner Kifune - were just standing around the edges of the remains of the fake city, gaping at him in shocked silence. The only thing that broke the silence was the two dimensional areas being cancelled, and Chaud Crossing Out automatically along with them.

Chaud caught his PET before it hit the ground and shared a grin with ProtoMan when he appeared on his shoulder.

Nobody spoke for almost a full twenty seconds.

"Does this mean my team wins?" Chaud asked, finally breaking the silence.

That seemed to also break everyone out of their shock.

"Y-yes," Commissioner Kifune said, rather blankly. "I . . . suppose it does. The mock-terrorists have, for the first time since these war games started, won a game. And, er . . ."

Chaud tilted his head. For some reason, the action terrified several Net Police officers, who whimpered and clung to each other.

"What's wrong?" Chaud wondered.

"N-nothing," Commissioner Kifune said, with an extremely nervous smile.

"You're _insane_ ," Lan blurted out, looking petrified. "Why are you a Net Saver?"

"Just be glad he's on our side," Raika grumbled.

 **OOOOOO**

FINALLY WE'RE DONE.

And this marks the official end of the longest 'part' (to date) of _System Error_ , and also quite possibly the craziest. I just love the idea of Chaud going nuts, terrifying pretty much everyone in the vicinity, and then being completely clueless as to why everyone's suddenly so afraid of him.

But yeah, if he ever gets serious about fighting Lan or Raika, he could probably kick both of their asses in much the same way he did up above. If he doesn't wanna be hit, then even Raika's super-accuracy can't do anything against him, since he'll be moving too fast to actually get hit by anything that his opponents will throw at him, plus he can land like a million slices on your ass if he wants to.

See, my headcanon for these guys' strengths is this - Lan/MegaMan are the most powerful, Raika/SearchMan are the most accurate, and Chaud/ProtoMan are the fastest. So that's power, accuracy, and speed. Technically it's canon anyway, since ProtoMan is canonically one of the fastest Navis in the world.

I think in the manga he can go like mach 3 or some shit. I'm not sure, but he's damn fast and damn-near impossible to hit, and in the games he's fucking fast as hell too.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it!

Read and review!


	20. Restless, Part 1

I still don't know what to call this, so until I work out a proper title, I'm gonna just call it _Unnamed_. This'll make absolutely no sense to you guys because I'm not gonna upload this 'part' with a title of _Unnamed_ , and it'll have some sort of title by the time I finish it, but I'm just telling myself what this 'part' is called.

Anyway.

You guys wanted a follow-up to _Exhausted_ , and a follow-up to _Exhausted_ you shall get.

And like I said before, thanks to blazenight01, I have an idea as to how to start this 'part' off. I'm gonna enjoy writing this, I've been thinking about it for a while now.

I also realised I may have forgotten to do my thing of telling you Chaud's age in the last 'part', but it got mentioned like halfway through one of the chapters anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Since this is a follow-up to a previous 'part', Chaud is the exact same age. This . . . is probably completely unnecessary, but I feel the need to do this ritual-type thing anyway.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

ProtoMan very slowly came into awareness. It was almost like how humans woke up after sleeping, but for a Navi, it was an entirely different type of 'waking up'. And normally he woke up a lot faster than this, but for some strange reason his systems were slow and he was unable to think properly. The term, he believed, was 'sluggish'.

" . . . Hey, I think he's waking up."

"You sure about that? . . . Oh, he is."

He opened his eyes as much as he could - not that anyone was able to see this, because of his visor - and was just able to make out the shapes of two half-familiar Navis. He was still inside Chaud's PET, lying on top of a datablock, as far as he knew.

"Wha' happ'n'?" ProtoMan tried to ask. It came out strange, though, as if he were talking with a mouthful of cyberwater. Or something.

He really was not thinking properly at the moment.

One of the Navis leaned forward, allowing ProtoMan to get a better look at them. It was TomahawkMan, the NetNavi of Dingo.

"Hey, you need to go back to sleep," TomahawkMan told him. "Your energy's still dangerously low."

ProtoMan looked at him incomprehensibly for a moment.

"You've been active for days on end," TomahawkMan explained. "Don't you remember? You asked us all to help you out with-"

"-list," ProtoMan slurred, suddenly remembering. "Th's . . . list thin'. F-for . . . Chaud? Is . . . s'e okay?"

"Who, Chaud?" TomahawkMan guessed. "He's asleep, like you should be. IceMan just got back from checking up on him."

The other Navi hopped onto the datablock beside ProtoMan and kneeled down. "Yeah, he was sound asleep," the tiny ice Navi reported. "And he still looked pretty bad, too . . ."

"H'w lon'?" ProtoMan asked.

The words made little sense even to him, but luckily it seemed that TomahawkMan was fluent in gibberish.

"Three hours since you both passed out," TomahawkMan answered. "SearchMan went to go and get Raika. He sent us an email a while ago, Raika's on his way and he'll come and take Chaud back to his house-"

"No," ProtoMan moaned.

"No?" TomahawkMan repeated, exchanging a surprised glance with IceMan. "What do you mean?"

"Can't . . . res' . . . no rest . . ." ProtoMan tried to explain. "H's . . . father won't . . . let 'im . . . Don't go home."

"His father won't let him rest, is that what you're trying to say?" TomahawkMan asked him.

ProtoMan nodded. Even in this state, he knew that if Chaud went home, his father would just force him to go back to work, regardless of how badly Chaud needed to rest.

"But . . . he needs to sleep, why would his dad not let him?" IceMan wondered, looking at TomahawkMan with an innocently worried look.

"I don't know," TomahawkMan said quietly. He frowned at ProtoMan, who was starting to feel the darkness of sleep-mode claiming him again. "What do you mean?"

"Don't go home . . ." ProtoMan mumbled.

He drifted off again.

The next time he woke up, he was still in the same place - but somehow he knew that something had changed. Perhaps it was his systems, because he felt a lot better than he had done in days, or perhaps it was something else entirely. Either way, when he next opened his eyes, there was definitely something different.

He sighed and stared at the top of Chaud's PET's cyberworld.

Then he frowned to himself. Hadn't the cyberworld of the PET been in shambles the last time he'd been active? Everything had been a mess, he hadn't had a chance to clean up because he'd been so busy, and yet now everything was clean.

A familiar face appeared overhead, the owner leaning over him.

"You're awake?" SearchMan asked.

"Yes," ProtoMan replied. He slowly sat up with a bit of assistance from SearchMan, and looked around. "What happened? This cyberworld was a mess before, and yet now it is as clean as it ever was."

"Cleaning the PET's cyberworld was one of the items on your personal list," SearchMan explained, "but we all would have done it even if it hadn't been on there. We all took it in turns to clean up and look after you while you slept."

"Oh," ProtoMan said. "Well . . . thank you."

Another Navi appeared next to SearchMan. Roll looked surprised to see ProtoMan sitting up, but she recovered quickly.

"He's still out," she told SearchMan. "Lan's mom came to check up on him while I was out there, though. She says his temperature's gone down a little bit."

"So he's getting better at least," SearchMan said.

"Who's getting better?" ProtoMan asked them.

The two Navis traded looks. ProtoMan had a very strange feeling that he knew exactly who they were talking about just from those looks, but he didn't want to assume anything. Nor did he want to prematurely panic - no doubt whoever they were talking about was ill, but it may not be who he thought it was. He hoped it wasn't.

"Are you well enough to stand?" SearchMan asked ProtoMan. "Your energy was restored a while ago, but your program may still be a little sluggish."

ProtoMan nodded. He didn't feel tired, or at least not as tired as he'd been for the past several days, so that rest had done him some good. Now if his worst fears weren't about to be confirmed, he could say the same for Chaud.

He slipped off the datablock and stood up with just a little difficulty. Normally a Navi would be able to get going as soon as they were activated, but it seemed that, despite being in sleep-mode for however long, his program was still trying to play catch-up. It was probably a direct result of being active for such a long time.

SearchMan once again helped to steady him, and together the three Navis activated their hologram programs and appeared in the real world as miniture versions of themselves next to the PET, which was set on a nightstand next to a bed in an unfamiliar room.

As soon as he saw who was in the bed, ProtoMan went still.

"He's been asleep for several days," SearchMan told him quietly. "So have you, though fortunately you're unable to get ill like him. I don't think we could handle it if both of you were to get dangerously ill like this . . ."

"Dangerously?" ProtoMan repeated, unable to look away from the sight of his operator lying ill in the unfamiliar bed.

"No one can go days with no sleep without some serious consequences," Roll said sadly. "Let alone a kid like him."

"The Hikaris had a doctor from the hospital come over to look at him," SearchMan said. "We got lucky. If he hadn't gone to sleep when he did, Chaud could have been much worse than this. As it is, he's just sick - the doctor said he needs to rest, and that's what he's been doing for the past few days. He's also supposed to take some medicine, but he barely wakes up, and when he does, he's hardly lucid enough to take anything."

ProtoMan lowered his head, but was still unable to look away from Chaud. He was pale, paler than he usually was, yet his face was flushed and he seemed to be in pain. As ProtoMan was watching, Chaud let out a tiny sound that could have been a whimper.

That prompted him into action. SearchMan and Roll did nothing to stop him when he hovered over to the bed, settling down cross-legged on the pillow next to his operator.

"Chaud," ProtoMan whispered quietly.

Even though there was no logical way for his operator to hear him, that appeared to help somewhat. Chaud let out another sound, less of a whimper and more of a mumble this time, and his expression softened a little. ProtoMan reached out and laid a hand on his cheek, but he couldn't physically touch anything the way he was now.

If this was Beyondard, it would have worked. Or if he was in a CopyBot. But all he had was this little hologram, and if his voice was enough to help Chaud, then so be it.

He was alerted to movement behind him, and though they didn't sit down, he knew that SearchMan and Roll were standing either side of him. For several moments, none of them spoke. But then SearchMan broke the silence.

"You woke up once," he said. "Just once. TomahawkMan and IceMan were there, they said you weren't very coherent. But you did say something that was very interesting."

ProtoMan didn't reply or look at him.

"Your kept saying 'don't go home'," SearchMan went on. "TomahawkMan also said that you became agitated when he told you that Raika would be taking Chaud back to his own house to sleep. You opposed the idea the moment he mentioned it."

" . . . I don't remember that," ProtoMan said quietly. Most would assume him to be lying, but in reality he was not - he genuinely could not remember waking up. The last thing he remembered was GutsMan placing him onto that datablock so he could sleep; anything after that was fuzzy at best.

"I doubt you would," SearchMan said. "But it did confuse TomahawkMan and IceMan. They did not get a chance to ask what you meant because you fell asleep not long after you said 'don't go home'. However-"

"SearchMan, he just woke up, can't we give him a bit of space before we interrogate him?" Roll interrupted.

ProtoMan didn't see it, but the two Navis exchanged glances over his head - a half-hearted and remarkably silent debate that lasted several moments. Eventually, SearchMan sighed.

"Fine," he agreed. "I won't question him yet. But I will eventually - their behaviour is extremely concerning, and I'm not the only one who wants to know exactly why Chaud's father wouldn't allow him to sleep when he clearly needs to."

ProtoMan ignored both of them and kept his focus on Chaud. From this close up he could clearly see the dark shadows under his operators eyes, even after a few days of rest.

He would stay here until Chaud was better.

 **OOOOOO**

This website had some weird complications a while ago . . . hmmm . . . Oh well. Seems like they fixed it all up now anyway, so it doesn't matter that much.

Anywho, thanks to XSilverBerryX for your review, it's always nice to know when new people show up to read my crap! And I think everyone can relate to Chaud going nuts because he's basically allowed to. It was really, really fun to write him going nuts.

Oh yeah, and I've decided that, unless someone comes up with something better, this 'part' is now called _Restless_.

Read and review!


	21. Restless, Part 2

Everyone enjoying reading _Restless_? I'm planning on making this a two-chapter 'part', and then we'll be moving on to something else entirely.

That something will be explained in the AN at the end of this chapter, so unfortunately you'll have to read the chapter before you can see what I have in mind for the next 'part'.

I will tell you this, though - it's not canon for _System Error_ , nor is it canon for the actual franchise itself. And that's all I'm gonna tell you, because otherwise we'll be here all day and I'll end up writing that instead of the rest of _Restless_.

Anyway.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"Raika brought Chaud here as soon as TomahawkMan told me what you said," SearchMan informed ProtoMan the day after he had woken up properly. Chaud was still out, but that was to be expected, and ProtoMan had made good on his promise not to move from his operator's side.

"Why the Hikaris?" ProtoMan asked.

"He's been here before, and Lan's parents enjoy his company, as does Lan himself," his friend replied. "There's also the fact that Dr. Hikari took this entire ordeal very personally, especially after he visited IPC Tower."

ProtoMan barely restrained a gasp of surprise.

"He went to IPC?" he repeated. "Why would Dr. Hikari do that?"

"Initially, he went to inform Chaud's father of his son's illness," SearchMan said. "I don't know all the details, but apparently it didn't go very well. Dr. Hikari stormed out ten minutes after going into Shuseki Blaze's office, and when he came back here, he announced that Chaud would be staying here for the time being." SearchMan gave ProtoMan a considering look. "Any idea as to why Dr. Hikari would be so angry with Chaud's father?"

"It is Chaud that SciLab mainly deals with when it comes to IPC," ProtoMan said, trying to stall his answer. He had a feeling he knew exactly why Dr. Hikari had been so angry.

"Yes, but that doesn't explain why Dr. Hikari would dislike Chaud's father so much," SearchMan rebuffed. "And I know it also ties in with your own behaviour - Dr. Hikari's willingness to allow Chaud to stay here rather than rest at his own home, and you yourself being against Chaud going home to start off with. Are you ready to explain why Chaud's father wouldn't allow him to rest when he so clearly needs to? Or why you were so opposed to Raika taking Chaud home?"

"That place is barely home to either of us."

The words were out before ProtoMan could stop himself. He gritted his teeth, immediately regretting saying anything, but SearchMan didn't seem too shocked. In fact, it appeared as though this was the sort of answer he had expected. Which just made this 'interrogation' even worse.

"I'm going to ask you one question, and I want you to answer it honestly, and plainly," SearchMan told him. "Does Chaud fear his father?"

ProtoMan looked at SearchMan and stayed silent.

SearchMan merely stared back resolutely. In a battle of wills, ProtoMan knew he could probably defeat this Navi, but this time SearchMan was determined - and ProtoMan himself was still slightly weak from being active for so long, despite the several-days rest he'd had recently. He was eventually forced to look away, down at the material of the pillow they were sitting on.

"Yes," ProtoMan said.

SearchMan hummed, straightening up. ProtoMan didn't dare look him in the eyes.

"And that, in turn, also answers the question of why you're opposed to him going home in this condition," SearchMan said quietly.

"I'm not opposed to him going home because of that," ProtoMan muttered. "If he goes home like this, his father will only force him to continue working despite his need to rest. I do not wish for that to happen. If I really did tell TomahawkMan and IceMan to not let Chaud go home, then I am glad that they listened."

"If someone says something like that, even if they're half-asleep, people will take it seriously," SearchMan told him. "I know I would - Raika certainly did. He has not personally experienced this type of thing, but he understands more than most."

"Don't . . . don't talk like that," ProtoMan said quietly, lowering his head even more. "Please. I am not Chaud, but I can speak for him. He would not want to hear any of this."

"Why not? His friends care for him, why shouldn't he hear this?"

"Because he knows everyone cares, he just does not want to . . ." Here, ProtoMan hesitated to speak further. But SearchMan seemed to know what he was going to say anyway.

"He fears his father, and his father's wrath," SearchMan guessed, correctly. " . . . Even if Chaud is too afraid of his father to stand up to him, he has to know that his friends will do it for him if the need arises. Dr. Hikari has most likely already done so, when he went to IPC. Apparently the argument got out of hand and Dr. Hikari actually began shouting."

ProtoMan looked up sharply. SearchMan shrugged.

"I may not know the full story, but that much I do know," he said. "It's partly why Dr. Hikari now bears a strong dislike towards Shuseki Blaze. I wouldn't go as far as to say he hates the man, but it's certainly close."

ProtoMan could understand why Dr. Hikari did not like his operator's father. He was unashamed to admit that he did not like the man either, and Chaud knew this. However, he was the only one who knew, and ProtoMan wished to keep it that way.

Both Navis were distracted from their conversation by a murmur from the human child beside them. ProtoMan half-expected this to be another sleep-sound, but when he looked over at Chaud, he found himself looking into half-lidded and glazed blue eyes.

"Chaud." ProtoMan had to force himself to be quiet - his first instinct had been to cry out in joy (Chaud hadn't woken since he'd become active), but that wouldn't be a good idea at the moment. Chaud needed peace and quiet. "How do you feel?"

"I hurt," Chaud replied, his voice hardly more than a hoarse whisper. "What happened? Where am I?"

"You're ill," ProtoMan explained. "And you are at the Hikari residence."

"Raika brought you here upon ProtoMan's request, sort of," SearchMan interjected. "You've been asleep for several days, though you've woken up several times - you weren't at all lucid, however. How aware of yourself are you right now?"

"What does that even mean?" Chaud croaked.

"I believe he is, otherwise he would not be speaking to us like this," ProtoMan said to SearchMan, who nodded his agreement. ProtoMan turned his attention back to his operator. "You say you hurt - where, exactly?"

"Head," Chaud murmured. "Stomach. Aching everywhere."

"You haven't eaten for a while, it makes sense that your stomach hurts," SearchMan said.

"Head?"

"I told you, you're ill," ProtoMan reminded him gently. "Of course you're aching all over. You need to rest as much as possible, which is why the Hikaris are looking after you at the moment. Now that you're actually awake, Mrs. Hikari can give you the medicine you're supposed to take."

"Don't want medicine," Chaud half-whined, cringing. "It tastes stupid."

ProtoMan sighed, while SearchMan mouthed 'it tastes stupid?' to himself incredulously.

"If you wish to get better, then you must take it, no matter how much you do not enjoy its taste," ProtoMan lightly scolded his operator. "If it will make you feel better, I could convince Mrs. Hikari to give you something afterwards to get rid of the taste."

"Can you?" Chaud asked hopefully.

"I cannot promise anything, but I will certainly try," ProtoMan replied. "Do you feel tired right now?"

"Little bit . . ."

"Then go back to sleep," he urged Chaud gently. "I will wake you when Mrs. Hikari comes in. Just rest."

"'Kay . . ." Chaud mumbled.

When he was certain that Chaud had gone back to sleep, ProtoMan turned back to SearchMan, who was still confused about Chaud's choice of words to describe his dislike of the taste of medicine.

"I've never heard him speak like that," SearchMan said.

"He is ill, you cannot blame him for being unable to speak poetry," ProtoMan huffed.

SearchMan raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him.

 **OOOOOO**

And this marks the end of _Exhaustion_ 's follow-up, _Restless_! I've decided that I'm gonna keep this name, cus I like it. Anyway, have some concerned SearchMan, and ProtoMan sassing him at the end there.

I love sassy ProtoMan. It's even better because this silliness comes moments after a completely serious discussion about how horrible Chaud's father-who-doesn't-deserve-to-be-called-a-father is.

But anyway, I said I'd tell you about the next 'part'.

It's gonna be a two-chapter 'part', and will be known as _The Darkloid's Pet_. It features Dark ProtoMan and Chaud, and also is a complete AU. Basically it doesn't fit in with _System Error_ 's canon, and the only reason I'm writing it is because me and Cin started talking about the Darkloid war timeline from _Stream_ , and we sort of spawned some really weird shit about it.

Including, of course, something to do with Chaud. And Dark ProtoMan. I won't say too much right now because I don't wanna spoil anything for anyone, but it won't exactly be a happy 'part', for the most part at least.

Have fun waiting for _The Darkloid's Pet_.

Read and review!


	22. The Darkloid's Pet, Part 1

You know how last chapter I mentioned the Darkloid war timeline? That's basically the entire basis for the entire 'part' this time around. Basically, this isn't canon for _System Error_ and is purely for mine, Cin's and your enjoyment.

Like I said before, this isn't exactly gonna be a happy 'part'. It's not exactly slavery, but there's some unhealthy shit going on, and this is pretty much the brainchild of what me and Cin came up with for this Darkloid war timeline AU thing.

I can't explain too much without giving you guys spoilers, but basically, the backstory of this AU 'part' is that humans and Darkloids have been at war for years, and everyone we know and love has been born during this horrible war, including Chaud. The war doesn't get to be featured too much since that's not the real focus of this 'part', though knowing the backstory to this 'part' will help you guys to understand exactly what's going on.

In this 'part', Chaud is six going on seven. He'll be twelve in the next chapter.

So, let's get into _The Darkloid's Pet_!

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Chaud was just a few days shy of seven years old when the Darkloid war affected him directly.

He'd always known about the war, it wasn't as if his father had tried to shield him from the knowledge of it - he hadn't tried to shield Chaud from anything, really. But even though Chaud had always known about it, he'd always thought of it as something that was just sort of happening and didn't really fuss too much about it, mainly because it wasn't happening to him specifically.

But one day, when he came home after a walk through the woodland surrounding the mansion he called home, he realised that something was very wrong.

The first thing he encountered was the silence. That wasn't an odd thing in itself, because his father was the type to believe that silence was golden, but there was something different about the silence this time - instead of relatively peaceful, it seemed . . . wrong, somehow.

The entire mansion was silent, and he couldn't find a single person no matter where he looked.

So he went up to the second floor, hoping that everyone was just playing some sort of trick on him (though he'd never known his father or any of the staff to play tricks like this, or to play tricks at all). It was only then that he heard the choked screams, but even though he was terrified, Chaud forced himself to move towards the screaming.

And so the second thing he encountered was his father being brutally ripped apart by ProtoMan, who was Chaud's own NetNavi.

But ProtoMan looked strange - his hair was wild, his visor was red, and he seemed . . . dark, somehow. Evil. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened, and Chaud couldn't help the gasp of terror that escaped his mouth.

Dark ProtoMan paused in his brutal murder of the man Chaud called father, and glanced up. A shark-like grin stretched across his features, and Chaud found himself rooted to the spot as Dark ProtoMan tossed aside his father's body like a ragdoll and straightened up, not even bothering to wipe the blood off his body.

"I was wondering when you would come back," Dark ProtoMan said, speaking with the voice that Chaud knew so well - but the tone was horrible, silky, wrong. "This was getting a little boring."

Chaud tried to speak, but he caught sight at his father's body and he could only make a small, terrified sound.

"Darkloids came while you were out," Dark ProtoMan told him, taking slow, deliberate steps towards Chaud. "I'm the only Navi in the mansion, and there wasn't much I could do against a full force like that. You wanna know what happened? They attacked and killed everyone except for your father, and then forced a Dark Chip into my programming. They left me with just one little scrap to play with, but he wasn't much fun. Oh, but where are my manners? Welcome home, Chaud."

He was now directly in front of Chaud, who was suddenly realising just how tall his Navi - no, how tall the Darkloid was. He was still too terrified to move, even though he was trying to will himself into running away. Not that it would do much good, ProtoMan (now Dark ProtoMan) was a very fast Navi, and very powerful.

"You're terrified of me," Dark ProtoMan murmured, with a sick smile. He knelt down and brushed his fingers against Chaud's cheek. "There, there . . . Don't be so afraid. I'm not going to hurt you. Not yet, anyway. I haven't decided what to do with you. I don't hate you like I hate that vile human back there, after all. Just don't get in my way for a while, alright?"

Chaud managed to nod, and went completely still as Dark ProtoMan gently ruffled his hair.

"There's a good boy," the new Darkloid cooed.

He wasn't sure how he'd managed to get through the next few days. It all seemed to pass in a terrified haze, and though he rarely ever saw Dark ProtoMan around, he always froze up whenever he saw the Darkloid. Yet Dark ProtoMan kept his word and didn't hurt Chaud at all.

The only thing that Dark ProtoMan did was force him to strip his father's body of everything - clothes, skin, muscles, right down to the bones, and then he was made to clean the bones as well. It didn't even end there, because Dark ProtoMan somehow fit the bones back together with wire, and then hung the skeleton up on a wall in the foyer as a sort of trophy.

And several days later, while Chaud was trying to get some food from the kitchen (he'd found the bodies of the staff stuffed into various walk-in cupboards and was resolutely ignoring them), Dark ProtoMan sought him out.

"Come down from there," Dark ProtoMan ordered.

Chaud instantly dropped down from the counter and faced Dark ProtoMan with wide eyes.

"I've finally decided what to do with you," Dark ProtoMan said, and from behind his back he pulled out what looked like a dog collar. He came forward and knelt down. "Don't struggle, now."

He was too scared to do anything other than obey. Dark ProtoMan carefully fit the collar around his neck - it was a little big, but then he supposed the Darkloid was accounting for him growing as he got older.

"You're my pet," Dark ProtoMan told Chaud. "My little human pet. How does that sound, hm?" He reached out and petted Chaud's head. "Any objections, pet?"

Chaud tried to speak, but failed. He tried again when it became clear that Dark ProtoMan was waiting for a reply.

"N-no," he whispered, speaking for the first time in days. "I don't mind."

"Good boy," Dark ProtoMan said, smiling. "From now on, you can refer to me as Master, pet. Got that?"

"Yes."

Dark ProtoMan waited.

"M-Master," Chaud hastily added.

The Darkloid nodded, satisfied, and then stood up. He looked down at Chaud for a moment, and then spoke again.

"Pets don't really need clothes, do they?" he mused. "But a human walking around naked is just plain weird, even though it's just us here. Take everything off except your shorts."

Chaud did as he was told. The kitchen floor was cold beneath his now-bare feet, and he shivered.

"Cold, are we?" Dark ProtoMan murmured. "We can't have that." He reached down and picked Chaud up, bundling him in his arms. "There, is that better?"

Even though he was terrified and naked aside from his shorts and the collar, Chaud felt strangely warm while being held by Dark ProtoMan. He almost automatically curled up against the Darkloid's chest.

"I'll take that as a yes," Dark ProtoMan said. "I need to set some ground rules now, pet."

Dark ProtoMan meandered out of the kitchen, still holding Chaud.

"First of all, you're not to go outside this house without my permission," Dark ProtoMan told him. "You must ask me personally, and if you go outside without my permission, I will have to punish you. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Master," Chaud said faintly.

"Good, I'm glad you understand. Second, you obey every command I give you. No exceptions."

"Yes, Master."

"Third, I own you. You are my pet, and I am your master. You will act how I tell you to act."

Chaud nodded. Dark ProtoMan was once again satisfied.

"Fourth, if you disobey or anger me, you will be punished. Do you understand all of that, pet?"

"Yes, Master," Chaud whispered.

"Good boy. Now, I need to speak with my superiors in the Darkloid army, to find out what role I've been given. I'll be using your father's study as an office from now on. Stay in the corner and keep quiet. If it'll help, I'll give you something to play with."

 **OOOOOO**

And so ends the first chapter of _The Darkloid's Pet_.

The title, as you can see, is extremely literal. After murdering Chaud's father in cold blood, Dark ProtoMan then makes Chaud into his pet (complete with an actual collar, too) and treats him how most people would treat their cats or dogs. Except for the punishment thing (don't punish your pets, people), but don't forget, Dark ProtoMan is a Darkloid here, and he hates all humans aside from his cute little pet human.

The other Darkloids are totally jealous of Dark ProtoMan's pet, by the way.

And . . . it's only now that I realise I probably should've warned you guys about the violent scene at the start there . . . hmm . . .

Oh well. It's just Shuseki, who gives a crap, that man deserved what he got anyway.

Read and review!


	23. The Darkloid's Pet, Part 2

The last chapter we saw Dark ProtoMan murdering Chaud's father and then making Chaud into his pet.

And in this chapter, we see something else entirely, but I won't spoil it because I wanna surprise all of you. It'll be fun to try and figure out how to write this, but at least I know what's gonna happen, so you guys just sit back and read the finished version of this weird brainchild of mine and Cin's fantasies.

Chaud's now twelve, by the way.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Five years had passed since Dark ProtoMan became the master of the Blaze mansion, and in that time, he had become one of the Darkloid's top generals in the war. He was respected by his fellow Darkloids and feared by his enemies, and kept the bones of his fallen human enemies as trophies which he hung up on the walls of the foyer.

Chaud knew all of this because Dark ProtoMan had him strip and clean every single human victim that his master brought back home. At first he had been disgusted by it, but as time passed, he grew used to stripping the bodies and didn't even cringe anymore.

It was one of those quiet days when Dark ProtoMan was out, at some sort of meeting with his superiors from what he had told Chaud. Dark ProtoMan had said he would be bringing back a special treat for Chaud, but he could only have it if he behaved in his absence, so Chaud was being very careful not to do anything that would anger his master. He kept the mansion as clean as he could and made sure all of the skeleton bones were free of dust, and also made sure not to set foot outside.

Unfortunately it seemed that fate was a cruel mistress.

He was in a large walk-in cupboard clearing away some cobwebs when he heard the front doors crash open and slam moments later. Immediately he was on full alert, as Dark ProtoMan would never slam the front doors like that.

Chaud crept over to the foyer and peered out from behind a half-open door, and froze.

There was a human and a Navi, leaning against the front doors and panting heavily. The human seemed worse off than the Navi, because humans were by far the weaker of the two species.

"Are . . . we . . . safe?" the human gasped out.

The Navi - he was very blue and strangely small for a Navi - glanced at the human. "I think so," he replied, less out of breath and able to speak better than his human companion. "We should be okay in here. I think the viruses actually stopped chasing us the moment we were through the gates, actually . . ."

The human sucked in a great gulp of air and looked up. "Really?" he asked. "Why?"

"I dunno," the blue Navi said, shaking his head. "I was too busy running away to- wait a moment."

"What is it?"

The blue Navi pushed off the door, looking around the foyer with narrowed eyes. Chaud backed away a little so he couldn't be seen as easily, but still the blue Navi's eyes settled on his hiding spot.

"There's someone watching us," the blue Navi told the human, eyes fixed on Chaud's hiding spot.

"Darkloid?" the human asked sharply, standing up properly.

"No, human," the blue Navi said quietly. His expression cleared, and suddenly he looked kinder, gentler. "It's okay," he called. "You can come out - we won't hurt you!"

"What if _they_ wanna hurt _us_?" the human pointed out, but the blue Navi silenced him with a 'shush'.

Meanwhile, Chaud was debating whether or not to show himself. He only allowed himself a couple of seconds to consider his options before he pushed open the door and stepped out into the foyer, going as close to the human and Navi as he dared. The Navi he didn't mind as much, but the human he was wary of.

They both looked shocked at his appearance.

"Dude," the human said, "where're your clothes?"

Chaud tilted his head, confused.

"I think you should worry more about the collar around his neck," the blue Navi pointed out.

The human looked surprised, and stared at Chaud's neck with wide eyes. Chaud barely spared him a glance and instead focused on the blue Navi.

"You make your pet wear clothes?" he asked the Navi.

"Pet?" the blue Navi repeated incredulously. "What do you mean?"

"Him," Chaud clarified, pointing at the human. "He's your pet, isn't he?"

"N-no," the blue Navi said, looking shocked. "Lan's not my pet, he's my best friend! And I'm his NetNavi."

"And _my_ best friend," the human, Lan, added. "His name's MegaMan. What's your name?"

Chaud shook his head. "That's just weird," he said, instead of answering the question. "Why isn't he your pet?"

Lan looked a little offended, but MegaMan was frowning at Chaud.

"Is that what you are?" he guessed. "A pet?"

"Yes," Chaud replied. Then he blinked, suddenly remembering why he had decided to come out in the first place. "You shouldn't be here."

"Why not?" Lan demanded.

"Because Master will be angry if he comes home and finds you here," Chaud explained plainly. "You need to leave, now. Before he comes back."

MegaMan opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Lan noticed the skeleton trophies on the walls.

"What's up with these weird Halloween decorations?" he asked, wandering over to one and running his fingers over a leg bone.

MegaMan glanced at him, and then looked at Chaud, clearly asking for an explanation.

"Those are Master's trophies," Chaud said. "He gets me to strip and clean them, and then puts them up for display. Sometimes he wants them decorated, so I make them look nice for him."

After a moment, Chaud's words sank in, and MegaMan whirled around to Lan.

"Lan, don't touch that!" he cried.

Lan glanced at him over his shoulder. "What? Why not?" he asked.

"That's a human skeleton!"

Immediately, Lan froze, and very slowly turned to look back at the skeleton he was currently touching. As soon as it registered that he was touching the bones of an actual dead human, he squealed and scrambled away, clutching the hand that had been touching the bones like it had been burnt.

"That's disgusting!" he exclaimed. "Why would anyone wanna hang up dead people!?"

"This guy said they're his master's trophies," MegaMan said quietly. "I'm gonna guess that means his master is a Darkloid, and he's being kept as a pet for some sick entertainment."

"You need to leave," Chaud told them again. "He'll be angry if he finds you."

"We'll leave," MegaMan said, before Lan could say anything. "But . . . please, can you tell me your name?"

Chaud wasn't sure if he should, but MegaMan was a Navi. That meant he was superior to humans, even if he said that one was apparently his best friend. It was almost instinctual to obey him.

"My name is Chaud," he said. "Now, leave. Before Master Dark ProtoMan comes back."

"Dark ProtoMan?" Lan repeated shrilly. "Y-you mean the Crimson Butcher?"

"No wonder those viruses left us alone as soon as we got through the gates," MegaMan said softly, looking at the floor with wide eyes.

Lan recovered from the shock quicker than MegaMan did. He looked at Chaud with determined eyes. "Come with us," he suddenly said.

Now it was Chaud's turn to be shocked.

"Why?" he asked, mainly out of curiosity.

"Because you don't deserve to be treated like this, like . . . like an _animal_!" Lan exclaimed urgently. He dropped his gaze to Chaud's collar. "That Darkloid's even got you wearing a collar . . . but you don't have to live like this anymore. You can come with us, and we'll help you. You can be free."

"But Master will be angry if I go outside without his permission," Chaud told him, backing away from what he was now sure was a clearly-insane human. Maybe he should keep them both here and hand them over to Dark ProtoMan when he came back home.

"That's why you should come with us," Lan said. "You don't have to be scared of him being angry with you if you're not here for him to be angry at."

"I'm not scared of him," Chaud replied. "And if Master's angry at me and punishes me, it's because I deserve it. I don't understand why you think I'm not okay here - he looks after me, which is more than a human deserves, and he gives me food and shelter. I'd be dead without him."

And Dark ProtoMan treated him much better than his father ever did. He wasn't about to say that to these two, however. Forget handing them over to his master, he wanted them gone. Now.

"You need to leave before he comes back," Chaud told them again.

Lan opened his mouth to protest, but MegaMan laid a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

"We can't change everyone's minds, Lan," MegaMan said quietly. "But with any luck, if we can win this war, we'll be able to help him. We'll be able to help everyone."

Lan sighed, and reluctantly nodded.

"There's a path at the back of the house you can use," Chaud said. "Leave through the front door and follow the red-stone path around the side of the mansion, and you'll come to the woodlands. Keep going until you reach the fence, climb over, and then leave. The viruses you were talking about won't go anywhere near the woodlands because they know I like going there, and they know Master will be very angry with them if they hurt me."

"Thank you," MegaMan said.

He and Lan turned to the front doors again. MegaMan opened them and paused to allow Lan through first, but just before he left, Lan turned around and looked at Chaud one last time.

"We'll get you out of this, I promise," he told Chaud firmly.

"There's no need," Chaud replied. "I'm fine where I am."

Lan frowned, upset, but MegaMan gently pushed his shoulder until they were both out of the mansion. Chaud went over and watched them follow the red-stone path until they were out of sight, and then he closed the doors.

Several hours later, his master arrived, mildly irritated, but as soon as Chaud came over to him, he seemed to become less stressed.

Dark ProtoMan absentmindedly patted Chaud's hair.

"Were you a good boy while I was gone?" he asked.

"I didn't leave the mansion, and I made them go away," Chaud reported, enjoying the petting.

Dark ProtoMan hummed, interested in his last words. "Made who go away? Did some of my Darkloid allies come to bother you again?"

"No, it was a human called Lan and a Navi called MegaMan."

The fingers running through his hair tightened their grip suddenly, and Chaud squeaked in surprise and pain. It took a moment, but then Dark ProtoMan released his grip and instead put the same hand on his cheek, crouching to look him directly in the eyes.

"You're certain those were their names?" he demanded.

"They said so," Chaud replied, confused. "Why? Are they bad people?"

"They're a part of the so-called resistance, and a thorn in the Darkloid army's side," Dark ProtoMan told him. "And they were here, you said?"

Chaud nodded. "But I made them go away, because they tried to make me leave," he said. "Master, I'm sorry. Should I have made them stay here?"

"Oh, no, if they tried to make you leave, then they shouldn't have stayed here at all," Dark ProtoMan dismissed, standing up. He once again ran a hand through Chaud's hair, and Chaud closed his eyes to enjoy the petting. "Do you know which direction they went off in?"

"I told them to follow the red-stone path through the woodlands, because they were being chased by some viruses," Chaud said, opening his eyes.

"Now I have an idea as to where they might be," Dark ProtoMan muttered to himself. Then he turned his attention to Chaud again, and gave him a smile that usually meant he was in a good mood. "Good boy for telling me. Now, because you've been such a good boy, pet, I'm going to give you that special treat I told you about."

Chaud perked up as Dark ProtoMan reached into a bag that he'd slung across his shoulder, and he pulled out a pack of cookies. He handed them to Chaud, who immediately tore open the pack and started nibbling on one.

Dark ProtoMan put an arm around Chaud's shoulders and pulled him towards him, giving him a one-armed hug that was slightly more possessive than usual.

Chaud leaned against his master, again closing his eyes happily.

Yes, he was perfectly fine where he was.

 **OOOOOO**

It's kind of weirdly adorable, the way this AU works. I mean, I know it's not exactly healthy for Chaud to be treated like an actual pet, but still. The images I come up with for this are actually pretty adorable . . .

But anyway, the full story behind this AU.

Like I said before, me and Cin were discussing the Darkloid war timeline that showed up during _Stream_. We came up with a bunch of stuff about it, being the weird fangirls that we are, and of course our ramblings went to Chaud and ProtoMan and how the Darkloid war would affect them since everyone's been born into a war-torn world.

The basic thing here is that, at some point, normal ProtoMan is turned into Dark ProtoMan just like his anime counterpart. In this AU he was turned into a Darkloid when they attacked the Blaze mansion, and his first ever kill/victim/whatever was Chaud's father.

He makes Chaud into his literal pet and makes him wander around wearing nothing but shorts and a dog collar, and makes Chaud sleep in a pet bed and gets him to eat out of pet bowls whenever he gets fed. So, basically, yeah, a literal pet.

There's also some other stuff that I couldn't put into the 'part', since that's not what the focus was on. Some of that stuff includes the thing about Chaud sleeping in a pet bed and the pet bowl thing, and also about Dark ProtoMan getting Chaud to sit and beg for treats. There was also something else about how Chaud would ask for a treat. Dark ProtoMan would have Chaud say 'woof' if he wants a treat. In this chapter, Chaud doesn't do any of that because the treat is for him being a good boy while Dark ProtoMan was out.

We also came up with some stuff about the rest of this AU, namely about the resistance and Lan and MegaMan randomly bursting into the mansion, only to find Chaud wandering around half-naked. This chapter is basically that, so there's no need for an explanation.

But the rest of it is that Lan and MegaMan would tell the resistance about this human-turned-pet version of Chaud, and the resistance would mount a 'rescue' operation to save him. Dark ProtoMan would either be deleted or turned back into normal ProtoMan, and Chaud would obviously be incredibly lost because now he's a pet without an owner. Since he's too confused and too used to being a pet to function as a normal human, the resistance basically assign Lan to be his new 'owner'.

You can probably imagine how that turns out, but I won't describe it here because I don't wanna make this chapter longer than it should be.

If anyone wants to hear the full story, you can ask me or Cin for it, we won't mind telling you our weird headcanons and AU ideas. Cin is cinnamononions on Tumblr, remember.

Read and review!


	24. Songbirds

Hi guys! Hope you all enjoyed that random AU there, I certainly enjoyed writing it!

And to blazenight01, I have to apologise, but there's not gonna be a follow-up to _The Darkloid's Pet_. The main reason is that if I did end up doing a follow-up, it'd end up being a full-blown fic on its own, and this is just a collection of one-shots and 'parts'. A smaller reason is that I only ever intended to write those two chapters for everyone's entertainment, so no follow-ups, I'm afraid.

But anyway, here we are, finally, at the 'part' that I've wanted to write for a while now.

It's called _Songbirds_. I think I mentioned it a while ago, but I got distracted by other plots, including _War Games_ and _Restless_.

Anyway, this one's back to _System Error_ 'snormal canon, and it'll be a nice 'part' this time. I seem to specialise in writing angst, but I do like writing cute fluffy shit like this as well.

Though most of the time the angst seems to get more chapters than the fluff . . . hmm . . . is there something going on that I'm not aware of, brain? Do you enjoy projecting my suffering onto fictional characters more than coming up with cute fluff? Little bitch.

Chaud's twelve in this. It's set after _Beast_. Man, I nearly forgot to do that . . .

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Chaud was sitting in his office, but for once he wasn't working. He was actually listening to ProtoMan, who was quietly singing while he was working on whatever he was doing inside the Link PET.

"You have a nice voice," Chaud commented, once ProtoMan had finished the song.

There was an unmistakable squeak from inside the PET, and although Chaud couldn't see his face, he was sure that ProtoMan was blushing.

This was confirmed a moment later when ProtoMan's miniture hologram appeared on top of the PET, his red face visible even under the black visor that covered his eyes.

"I did not know you were listening," ProtoMan said quietly, looking at his feet. "I-I apologise for slacking off-"

"You weren't," Chaud interrupted with a smile. "If anyone was slacking off, it was me, I stopped working so I could listen to you. Like I said, you've got a nice voice - what was that you were singing, anyway?"

"I-I . . ." ProtoMan trailed off, and then glanced up and met Chaud's eyes. "It is a song known as _As Though Set Ablaze_. I . . . quite enjoy it. But I did not think that you would listen to me singing it . . ."

"You're a good singer, why wouldn't I listen to you?"

ProtoMan shook his head, and now he was smiling too, though he still looked faintly embarrassed. "Well," he said, "if I am a good singer, then you are amazing."

And now it was Chaud's turn to blush. He looked away, biting his lip.

"What're you talking about?" he half-mumbled. "I can't sing."

He stole a glance at ProtoMan and saw that he was grinning properly now. There was still a faint blush on his cheeks, but he wasn't as embarrassed as before.

"You are a poor liar, Chaud," ProtoMan informed him cheerfully. "I have heard you sing numerous times when you think no one is listening - I enjoy listening to you as much as I enjoy listening to the song I was just singing. I will not allow you to downplay your skill. Your voice is amazing."

"You sure you're not biased at all?" Chaud wondered, half-smiling as he turned to face ProtoMan properly.

"That's entirely possible, but you still sound amazing."

Chaud couldn't help but laugh.

"Would you mind if I request a song?" ProtoMan asked him. "You have heard me sing, it is only fair."

"Well . . . if . . . if you want, I guess," Chaud said. "Any songs you wanna hear in particular?"

"Pick one yourself, I do not mind," ProtoMan replied, and he waited patiently for Chaud to start singing.

Chaud swallowed and glanced briefly at his hands, clasped together in his lap, and then he looked back at ProtoMan. Quietly, he began to sing a song he'd heard a few times and only remembered the lyrics to because he liked it, but his voice grew stronger and more confident when ProtoMan was nothing but smiles.

When he finished, his voice trailing off on the last word, ProtoMan actually applauded him. Chaud once again blushed, though he was less embarrassed and more happy this time.

"What song was that, may I ask?" ProtoMan asked, after he'd stopped clapping.

" _Ashes To Ashes_ ," Chaud replied.

"It sounded wonderful." ProtoMan looked down at his feet again, but he glanced back up fairly quickly, looking hopeful. "What do you say to a duet?"

"A duet?" Chaud repeated. "I . . . I don't really know any duets . . ."

"That's quite alright, I know the lyrics for most of the songs I have in mind, perhaps I could teach you? There is one song known as _Phantom_ that I think you may enjoy . . ."

 **OOOOOO**

This one's probably the shortest in the entire fic, but that's just basically because _Songbirds_ , unlike about 90% of this fic, is a chill 'part'.

Oh, and in case anyone's interested, all three songs that were mentioned in this 'part' are actual songs. They were sang by the Japanese voice actors of Chaud and ProtoMan.

 _As Though Set Ablaze_ is the rough English translation of the song _Moyuru ga Gotoku_ , which was sang by Matsukaze Masaya, who also sang the song _Toki No Ito_. He's also the Japanese voice actor of ProtoMan.

 _Ashes To Ashes_ isn't an English translation but is the actual name of the song, and is sang by Saiga Mitsuki, who is Chaud's Japanese voice actor (or voice _actress_ , but voice actor is the general term so who cares). The other song, _Phantom_ , is also sang by her and some other guy whose name I don't actually know, and unfortunately I'm not really sure if _Phantom_ is the actual name for the song. That's what me and Cin think it's called, anyway.

Go and give all of those songs a listen, I love them all - especially _Moyuru ga Gotoku_.

Read and review!


	25. What's Solid?, Part 1

So everyone, remember Chaud's colourblindness during Cross Fusion, and how during _No Secrets For You_ he mentioned that it was a potentially life-threatening handicap? And how I mentioned a while back that I wanted to write other stuff about the colourblindness thing for you guys?

Well, that's basically what's gonna happen here.

I'm torn between colour-coded landmines and water, but since I wanna write some water, I guess that'll do for now - I can do colour-coded landmines later.

That probably makes zero sense to any of you guys who're reading this AN, but it's mostly for my own benefit so I know what I'm writing for this 'part'. There's a bunch of other plots that I wanna write (actually I should probably write some notes so I don't forget them) but I've been wanting to do this water-plot since literally the beginning, and now I'm gonna write it for you guys to read!

Chaud is, of course, twelve. Once again, it's set after _Beast_. Which means I get to write our favourite trio of idiot Cross Fusion Net Savers! Man I love these guys.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Their newest battle was taking place far outside the city, in a place that Lan had told them was called Okuden. Chaud had never personally been there, but he decided that he liked the place, even if his first experience with it was fighting for his life against a trio of shadow-like Navis who liked copying their opponents.

'Shadow-like' because, of course, the three Navis had turned into shadow-versions of Chaud, Lan and Raika. Or at least they were dark grey versions. He wasn't sure if they were any other colour, though he supposed he could always ask Lan and Raika later.

But unlike the usual cliche tropes, these shadow-copy Navis weren't forcing them to fight themselves and were instead switching their target constantly so that the trio of Net Savers were forced to switch between attacking and defending.

The shadow-Navis' current target was Chaud himself, so he was being forced to retreat while Lan and Raika tried to defend him. It was difficult since they were fighting themselves plus Chaud, hence why he was being forced to retreat.

They were so deep into the forest by now that they'd left the mountain path behind them long ago, and still they were going deeper.

"You know," Lan panted, as he ran alongside Chaud, "it's not fair if the enemy copies everything about us but they're still stronger somehow."

"They're bad guys, you expect them to play fair?" Raika irritably snapped, keeping an eye out behind them as they ran.

 _[Behind you!]_ came MegaMan's warning suddenly, half a second too late as the shadow-version of Chaud came zooming out of the trees with a dark Sword on his arm.

Raika, who was the closest to shadow-Chaud, stepped in front of the real Chaud to defend him, but the shadow-Chaud merely bounced over his head and brought the Sword down on Chaud's own head.

Chaud quickly activated a Proto Sword - the timing was faster than normal, he suspected it was ProtoMan pushing his power through their link to try and protect him - and clashed swords with the shadow-version of himself. Lan and Raika rushed forward to help him, but they were distracted by the appearance of shadow-Lan and shadow-Raika, so Chaud was left to face his shadowy double on his own for the time being.

Shadow-Chaud's eyes glittered behind his visor, and he swung another dark Sword at Chaud without taking the other away from the clash. Chaud had to very quickly download a Sword of his own to counter it, and they ended up locked in a strange upright tangle.

 _[How dare he steal our image!]_ ProtoMan muttered indignantly.

Chaud was momentarily distracted from the fight by his exasperation.

"I don't think that's what you should be angry about here," he sighed.

His momentary distraction was all his double needed to gain the upper hand, though, and he was suddenly thrown off-balance when shadow-Chaud pushed with both Swords. He landed on his back and his own two swords vanished as a result of the shock, which shadow-Chaud took full advantage of.

Chaud's eyes widened and he rolled out of the way just as two dark Swords stabbed into the ground where he'd just been lying.

Shadow-Chaud glared at him, and pulled the Swords out of the ground to try again. Chaud wasn't going to take that lying down (excuse the pun), so he sprang up and backed away, fists up and ready to fight.

Just as shadow-Chaud raised one of the dark Swords, Chaud threw him off by spinning around and running in the opposite direction.

His double was shocked into stillness for a moment, but then he ran after Chaud. Shadow-Lan and shadow-Raika noticed their current target making a run for it, and immediately abandoned their own fights to help shadow-Chaud chase down the real Chaud.

Chaud paid absolutely no attention to what his friends were doing, and instead focused on running as fast as he could. Considering how fast ProtoMan was _without_ Cross Fusion, this was pretty fast indeed, but his shadowy double could match his speed and eventually caught up to him.

He had to duck very suddenly to avoid the dark Variable Sword that shadow-Chaud swung at him, and ended up overextending and crashing to the ground, rolling a couple of times before he came to a painful stop.

Just before shadow-Lan fired a charged Mega Buster shot at him, the real Lan came out of the trees and threw a Boomer at all three of the shadow-Navis.

Meanwhile, Raika rushed in and dragged Chaud up by the arm ("Ow!" "No time to be careful, move!") while the shadow-Navis were distracted. They ran off again, Lan joining them moments later.

Raika still hadn't let go of Chaud's arm, so when shadow-Raika fired a well-aimed Scope Gun shot at Chaud, the Sharonian Net Saver almost lost his footing as Chaud stumbled from the hit and almost fell over. But it was thanks to that grip on his arm that Chaud didn't fall over and was able to keep running despite the pain from the Scope Gun.

"I never wanna get hit by you ever," Chaud gasped out.

"Just keep running!" Raika urged.

 _[INCOMING!]_ SearchMan bellowed, successfully warning them earlier than MegaMan had managed, yet shadow-Chaud still managed to take them by surprise when he sprang out at them.

But instead of going for Chaud, he instead went for Raika, which meant the shadow-Navis had once again switched targets.

Raika backed off quickly, letting go of Chaud to bring up his own Scope Gun to try and fend off shadow-Chaud's dark Proto Sword. Chaud downloaded a Neo Variable and swung it at his double, but shadow-Raika appeared directly in front of him via an Area Steal and used his copied Scope Gun as a club to hit Chaud in the head.

Lan caught Chaud as he stumbled back and nearly collapsed, and helped him stand.

"You good?" Lan asked quickly, and as soon as Chaud nodded, he rushed off to help Raika try and get rid of shadow-Chaud and shadow-Raika.

Lan's shadowy double came trotting out of the trees, and Chaud turned his attention to him to try and spare his friends having to deal with all three of them at once.

He blocked a couple of rapid-fire Mega Buster shots with his Neo Variable, and fired off a Sonic Boom which shadow-Lan dodged by jumping into the air. While he was up there, he copied Lan's earlier attack and threw a Boomer at Chaud, who slashed at it with his Neo Variable and cut it neatly in half. He lunged forward as shadow-Lan landed on the ground and raised his Neo Variable to attack, but shadow-Lan produced a dark Long Sword and the two vastly-different types of swords clashed back and forth for a few moments.

Despite Chaud being a better swordfighter than Lan, the shadowy double was able to gain the upper hand by kicking him back a few steps. Then he swung the Long Sword and threw Chaud back even more, watching him with glittering cruel eyes as he slammed onto the ground painfully.

Once shadow-Lan was sure his opponent was down for the moment, he hopped over Chaud and dashed over to join his shadow-Navis friends in trying to attack the real Lan and Raika.

 _[Are you okay?]_ ProtoMan asked him, sounding slightly strained.

"Surprisingly, yeah," Chaud huffed out. He managed to stand and almost collapsed, but ProtoMan lent him his strength and he was able to get up. "How are these guys so powerful? They copied us, they copied everything about us, so their power levels should be about the same, right?"

 _[I'm afraid that's not how these kind of things usually work,]_ ProtoMan sighed. _[A shadow-double is more powerful than the original by definition, mainly because, of course, the world is a cruel place and it enjoys tormenting those who fight the darkness.]_

" . . . Are you getting cynical on me, ProtoMan?"

 _[I will do whatever I please, thank you very much.]_

Chaud rolled his eyes, somewhat amused, and turned around to face the battle. He was surprised when he noticed that the shadow-Navis' target had changed again, because now Raika was the one trying to defend Lan. These Navis were being like this on purpose, seriously.

He still had his Neo Variable, so he rushed toward the fight. Shadow-Raika saw him coming and aimed a Scope Gun at him, but Chaud ducked under the shot and swung his sword at the double's mid-section, managing to knock him back a few steps. While shadow-Raika was wincing, Chaud turned his attention to shadow-Chaud.

He decided to play dirty and grabbed his shadowy double's ridiculously long hair-

 _[My hair is not that long, surely?]_ ProtoMan asked, sounding slightly hurt.

-and pulled, as hard as he could. He managed to unbalance his double but it didn't last very long, and he only made shadow-Chaud angry.

His double spun around as soon as he'd regained his balance and started battering Chaud with a dark Wide Sword. Shadow-Lan spun around from the real Lan and began shooting rapid-fire Mega Buster shots at Chaud again.

Okay, so now he was their target again. Fun.

He spun around and ran for it, hearing the shadow-Navis thundering after him. No time to download a Barrier or Guard chip, and he didn't have any stashed in the PET to start off with, so either way he was screwed. Chaud heard his friends shouting behind him, but he was too focused on getting away from the shadow-Navis to concentrate on what they were saying.

Up ahead was a large clearing - it looked big enough to house an entire arena - and he decided that he'd rather fight the shadow-Navis in a wide-open space rather than this cramped forest.

But their shadow-doubles had other ideas, and instead of just letting him run towards the large clearing, one of them - probably his own double, since it was a sword - scored a hit on him when he was just a few metres away from the clearing. He stumbled to a halt painfully, and spun around to face the shadow-Navis, only to get an uppercut to the stomach by shadow-Lan's Bronze Fist.

Chaud was thrown into the air. He didn't even have the breath to cry out, but he managed to twist around a little so he could see how far away the ground was.

At least the attack had carried him right into the large clearing, although now that he looked at it from here, there was something weird about the ground. But then suddenly he had no time to consider it as he was hurtling back down.

He hit the ground with a loud _splat_ and sank right through.

 **OOOOOO**

Whoops, I forgot to reply to the rest of blazenight01's review . . .

Yeah, there are people in _The Darkloid's Pet_ AU that fear and hate Navis, mainly because of the Darkloids. Since Darkloids, in that AU at least, outnumber both humans and normal NetNavis, they're winning the war and are very smug about it - not to mention they've enslaved like most of the human population.

Any surviving members of the human race that aren't slaves (or pets like Chaud) hate the Darkloids or fear them, and a lot of them also hate and fear NetNavis because they're basically the same species, even if NetNavis are fighting for humans.

Oh, and something else I forgot to mention - _The Darkloid's Pet_ AU is basically Beyondard but with Darkloids, which is why Dark ProtoMan and MegaMan are able to be in the real world with the humans.

Anyway, who's liking _What's Solid?_ so far? Can anyone guess why Chaud sank through the ground in that clearing rather than just slamming into it?

Read and review!


	26. What's Solid?, Part 2

It's more fun when I can torture my favourite characters, hah.

But moving on from that ominous statement, who else enjoyed the fact that the previous chapter was nothing but one giant battle? I can't remember if I've ever done anything like that before, and yes it does count as a battle even though Lan, Chaud and Raika were trying to run the hell away for about 80% of it. They were still fighting.

Speaking of the battle, the shadow-Navis are actually playing on the real Net Saver trio's strengths. Shadow-Chaud's using the real Chaud's speed to blast out sneak attacks, shadow-Lan is being a little bitch and just trotting about fighting everyone, and shadow-Raika is basically shooting everything he can set his Scope Gun on.

That's basically the bad version of all three of them, although if Chaud's annoyed enough he'll probably go _War Games_ and wreck everything in sight. His shadow-double won't be able to match him if that happens, but unfortunately he's a little bit occupied at the moment.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Water.

It only occurred to him, mere moments after he'd fallen through the ground, that this wasn't actually the ground at all - and that what he'd seen wasn't a clearing.

This was water, and that wide-open space was a lake.

And it was only now that he realised his friends had been trying to warn him, shouting that he was heading straight for the Okuden lake, but of course he hadn't paid attention and now he was sinking into the water, wide-eyed and wondering if he could drown in Cross Fusion.

 _Can't breathe,_ he thought.

ProtoMan's voice was far away. All he could hear over the sound of his own pounding heart was the faint scream of his Navi trying to make him do something, but what? What did ProtoMan want him to do? Get out of the water, maybe, or at least get to the surface?

Chaud couldn't swim.

All of a sudden, panic gripped him - and he Crossed Out.

His PET was floating in the water beside him, and now there was nothing to protect him from the water, nothing to stop him from gasping and letting out precious air bubbles that did him no good anyway.

He _couldn't swim_.

In his panic, he tried to flail around, tried to copy what he'd seen other people do, but he was clumsy and he'd never done this before, and only managed to make himself even more tired and scared than he already was. He could see ProtoMan pounding on the screen of the PET, unable to make the hologram because they were underwater, but he couldn't hear a thing for all the water around him.

Chaud stopped flailing around when he became too tired to move, and he struggled to stay conscious.

Then suddenly there was a hand reaching down to grab him and his PET, and he was being pulled upwards, out of the water, faster than was logically possible.

His saviour jumped out of the water and hung in the air for a moment, flying via the Jet Vernier, and then they zoomed over the surface towards the shore of the lake. There, Chaud was unceremoniously dumped on the ground, and his PET clattered onto the grass next to him as ProtoMan finally activated his hologram.

ProtoMan was yelling something at him.

"-eathe! Chaud, you need to breathe!"

Suddenly he was alert and aware of himself again, and everything came back into focus - as did the fact that his lungs were full of water. As soon as he was aware of that, he started hacking, coughing up water and what tasted like vomit, and someone was patting his back to try and help him out.

As soon as he'd gotten the water out, he gasped for proper air, and looked up at his saviour.

"Next time," Raika said, looking thoroughly relieved and mildly annoyed, "listen to what we shout at you."

"Thank you . . ." Chaud managed to whisper.

Raika looked at him for a few more moments, clearly wondering whether or not he was alright to leave Chaud on his own, but then explosions behind him forced him to make up his mind. As he stood up and ran off towards the explosions, Chaud caught a glimpse of the battle that was still raging on.

Lan was on his own against the three shadow-doubles, who weren't just grey versions of the Cross Fusion Net Savers, but actually darker-coloured versions of them. His own double was a dark blood red colour that reminded him of Dark ProtoMan, and he shuddered. Lan's double looked more like Dark MegaMan, while Raika's double was merely just a darker colour, since SearchMan (as far as they knew) had never had an evil version of himself running around the cyberworld or real world.

"Chaud?" ProtoMan asked. He'd seen Chaud's shudder and obviously knew it wasn't from his near-drowning.

"I'm fine," Chaud coughed. He wanted to get back into the fight, but in this state, he'd be more of a hindrance than anything else. He was simply too weak to do a thing.

He laid his head on the ground and decided to concentrate on getting his breath back.

Several minutes later, ProtoMan roused him from his state of half-consciousness, and he managed to look up in time to see Lan - now out of Cross Fusion - coming over with something in his hands.

It was a blanket, which he carefully laid over Chaud. Raika, also out of Cross Fusion, came up from behind him and knelt down, then picked Chaud up as easily as he would a ragdoll. Chaud just let it happen, but he was worried about ProtoMan, and he weakly reached out in a silly attempt to grab his PET. Lan seemed to understand what he wanted, and he placed Chaud's PET into his hands, taking ProtoMan's hologram with it.

"Is he okay?" Lan asked Raika, peering at Chaud with worried eyes.

"He should be," Raika replied. "Chaud? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah," Chaud half-mumbled.

His friends both relaxed a little. ProtoMan, now standing on Chaud's chest, still looked extremely worried - but then he was always worried. Chaud gave him a small smile in the hopes that it would at least make his Navi feel better, and it seemed to help, though not by much.

Raika moved, and now they were walking in the direction of the trees.

"We beat the Navis," Lan told Chaud brightly. "We didn't figure out how until Raika did it by accident - all we needed to do was cancel out their attacks and stun them, and then we could beat them."

"Cancel . . .?" Chaud asked.

"Use the opposite attack to what they were using," Raika explained. "My double used a Vulcan, so I threw a Search Grenade at him, and the attacks cancelled each other out - and I managed to stun him. Then Lan hit him with a Spreader, and he deleted him. We did the same for the others, though it was a bit more difficult to catch your double off-guard."

"M'sorry," Chaud said quietly, shamefaced.

"Nothing to be sorry about, it wasn't you."

"What was that about, anyway?" Lan asked Chaud. "Back then, when you were heading for the lake. You looked like you were gonna run right into it."

"We did not realise it was a lake," ProtoMan answered, instead of Chaud.

Lan and Raika stared at him and Chaud incredulously.

" . . . Oh," Raika said after a moment, blinking. "Now I understand."

"What?" Lan was still confused. "What is it? How come they didn't know it was a lake?"

"Think about what this whole place must've looked like to Chaud and ProtoMan during Cross Fusion," Raika told Lan. "Everything's black and white - they probably didn't even know what colour our doubles were until they saw them after they Crossed Out. To them, the lake probably just looked solid."

"So . . . basically, Chaud nearly drowned because he can't tell the difference between water and solid ground," Lan summarised.

"I told you it'd be a life-or-death thing," Chaud murmured.

"It's a good thing it wasn't," Raika said. "And I told you, stop talking like that. Besides, you literally got punched into that lake, so it's not like you fell in on purpose."

"I would've fallen in anyway."

"Lake's pretty shallow at the shore, you'd have stepped in and then gotten back out, no big deal," Lan dismissed casually.

Chaud didn't reply. He lifted his head enough so that he could just about peer over Raika's shoulder, and looked at the lake through the trees.

Even though they were getting further away from it, when he looked at the calm and peaceful water that had almost drowned him, he felt something creeping up inside him.

Fear.

 **OOOOOO**

YOOOOO CHAUD HAS FEAR.

That's it for _What's Solid?_ , so unfortunately for those of you wanting to know what else is gonna happen, you'll all have to wait. This will have a follow-up 'part', so don't worry, it's just that I wanna write something else as well. I always planned on making this plot and whatever happens next two separate things anyway.

About the fact that Chaud can't swim - that's another headcanon directly from me and Cin's weird ramblings. We guessed that Chaud probably doesn't have the time to do anything other than work, so he's never been able to set aside the time to do anything else, such as learning how to swim.

Unfortunately for Chaud, the fact that he can't swim almost got him killed in this 'part'.

I definitely have plans for the follow-up 'part', don't worry!

Read and review!


	27. I'm Listening

Hi guys! Today we've got something different - the angst this time actually doesn't focus entirely on Chaud, but rather Raika. But since this is from Chaud's POV, we've still got him and ProtoMan in the 'part'.

It's also another one-chapter 'part'. You'll understand what I mean by angst for Raika later on in the chapter.

Oh, and to CMDOBlitzen, yeah I will be doing a 'part' where everyone finds out about ProtoMan's blindness. I'd actually sort of forgotten about it until you reminded me, so thanks for that, and I'll try and figure out which version of 'everyone finds out that ProtoMan's blind' I wanna write. Meanwhile, I'll probably do some other 'parts', maybe including the follow-up to _What's Solid?_ or something.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Sharo was unbelievably cold.

That was Chaud's first impression of Raika's home country - he'd never been here before, and hadn't been prepared for the coldness that greeted him when he stepped off the plane. Lan, who had been here before, sniggered at his gasp of shock, while Raika simply sighed and went to meet his uncle, General Malenkov, who also happened to be the commissioner of the Sharonian Net Savers.

The second thing Chaud did after stepping into the cold was put on some warmer clothes. The first thing he did was shove some snow down Lan's shirt for petty revenge.

Some goodwill visit this was turning out to be. Chaud was going to get a cold by the time he got back to Japan, he could just see it coming. But at the very least, the coat that Raika's uncle gave him was pretty warm, so he was fine for the time being.

They sat through an hour and a half of a meeting with the superiors of the Sharonian Net Savers, Chaud paying more attention than Lan (who was pretending to be asleep and at one point Chaud was pretty sure he actually _had_ gone to sleep), and by the time that was over, he wasn't freezing to the bone anymore.

They were here for four days, with Raika acting as a sort of liaison for them, and they decided to make the most of those days. Well, Chaud did - Lan as usual just wanted to run off and play in the snow or something, but Chaud kept his focus on the goodwill visit.

Mostly. Okay, so he got distracted once or twice by Lan hurling snowballs at him, but who wouldn't have retaliated? It was childish, yes, but amazingly satisfying when Lan screamed and started running away from Chaud's own snowballs - though that may have been due to the fact that Chaud's snowballs were packed with bits of ice.

It was only on their third day that Chaud noticed something was up with Raika - he hadn't shown up for lunch, and this vanishing act (without a word to anyone, no less) was unusual for someone like him.

So Chaud, ignoring ProtoMan's protests, decided to investigate. He left Lan entertaining a few of the Sharonian Net Saver officers with his usual 'eat everything in sight' routine, and went to go and find out where his mint-haired friend was. His investigations took him ouside (which he detested but decided to bear because his curiosity was bigger than his need for warmth right now) and he eventually managed to track Raika down to some sort of garden a few streets away from the Sharonian Net Savers' HQ.

He went into the garden and spotted Raika on the other side. Chaud didn't know why, but when Raika glanced over his shoulder he quickly ducked behind a pitiful-looking tree with a strangely wide trunk to hide.

ProtoMan was giving him a strange look, floating near his elbow, but Chaud ignored him and peered around the trunk of the tree.

Raika had turned around again. He was peering down at something, hands in his pockets, and from here Chaud couldn't see his expression because his back was facing Chaud.

And it was only then that he realised what Raika was looking at - two headstones sitting side-by-side. This wasn't a garden, it was a graveyard.

As soon as he realised that, he also realised that he was intruding on something very private, and he turned around to leave. He took one step and his foot crunched loudly on some dead leaves scattered in the snow around the tree, and he froze.

"I knew you were there already, you can stop hiding," Raika called.

Chaud winced, and glanced at ProtoMan, who was giving him a 'that's what you get for sneaking around' look. He sighed and stepped out from behind the tree, approaching Raika with a feeling of burning shame.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, looking at the ground. "I didn't mean to . . . well, I did, but . . ."

"Don't worry about it," Raika replied, shaking his head. "You're curious, that's fine. Just . . . next time, don't stalk me, okay?"

It took a moment for Chaud to realise that Raika's tone was good-natured, and he glanced up to meet his eyes and found slight amusement in his expression. Chaud just about managed to respond to that amusement with a tiny, mildly embarrassed smile.

"Would you like to meet my parents?" Raika asked him, and Chaud was honestly completely baffled until he realised that Raika was gesturing to the two headstones he'd been looking at before.

"Y-your parents?" Chaud repeated, glancing at them.

"They died a few years ago," Raika said quietly. When Chaud looked up at him, he had turned his attention back to the headstones and was looking at them with a faraway look in his eyes. "We didn't have much money back then. Sharo was still struggling to survive. My parents gave me every scrap of food we could find, but they didn't take much for themselves. Their only concern was me."

Chaud kept silent as Raika talked. He wasn't entirely sure why Raika was telling him this, but maybe Raika just needed to talk, and for someone to listen. He wasn't good at touchy-feely stuff, but listening was something he could do.

"I tried giving them some of what I had, but they loved me too much to watch me starve, and I don't think they realised I felt the same way about them," Raika went on. "One winter, things were just so bad that we were going days without proper meals. I was seven at the time. I woke up one morning, and they were so cold. I tried to wake them up, but they just wouldn't. They'd died during the night, from the cold or from the hunger, I never found out which. Probably both. My uncle took me in after that, he made sure I had food and shelter and warmth. He didn't have much either, but it was better than slowly starving to death. Things got better after Morozov found the rare metal and Sharo was no longer under constant threat of starvation, though the cold's always going to be a problem."

The attempt at humour wasn't lost on Chaud, but he couldn't bring himself to smile. It didn't seem right.

"My story isn't really that unique," Raika said. "There's a lot of kids out there whose parents died like that. Some parents lost their children in the same way. Entire families were probably wiped out. But sometimes it wasn't really the cold or the hunger that finished people off. Some of my friends' parents weren't-" He glanced at Chaud. "-aren't exactly suited to be parents. There wasn't anything significant that I could do back then, I was too young, but I always told my friends that they were welcome at my uncle's place. I probably should have told Uncle Malenkov before I said any of that, but he was fine with it, and more than happy to take in kids whose parents didn't exactly . . . care as much as they should."

He let out a sigh that created a small cloud of fog for a brief moment before it vanished.

"Um," Chaud said, hating to interrupt, but he was too curious for his own good sometimes. "If you had friends when you were younger, why were you such a prick during the Nebula thing?"

Raika looked at him, and Chaud's eyes widened. He slapped his hands over his mouth and stared at his feet, mortified.

"I'm so sorry," he squeaked, half-muffled by his hands. "I didn't mean . . . It just slipped out, I didn't mean it, I swear."

But Raika surprised him by laughing.

"I suppose I was sort of a prick, wasn't I?" he said, as Chaud looked back up at him. "That . . . well, that's kind of because I joined the Net Savers. My uncle got me a job there, and I wanted to be the perfect soldier, so I sort of modelled myself after what I _thought_ was perfect - and, yes, I ended up becoming somewhat less than kind. But then Lan shoved friendship down my throat and I'm better now, just like you."

"A-ah, well . . ." Chaud stammered. He took his hands away from his mouth, feeling that if he was gonna say anything stupid again, he could just ask Raika to hit him. "That's . . . true, I guess. You weren't exactly friendly before, and now . . . you are. So am I, I think."

"You are," ProtoMan said, and Chaud nodded his thanks.

Raika smiled at them both, and turned back to his parents' headstones. "I always came here after I'd finished a mission, and I'd tell them all about it," he said. "I'd just finished telling them about Beyondard when you showed up."

Chaud was once again completely embarrassed. "A-about that," he mumbled. "I'm sorry for sneaking around."

"I already told you, don't worry about it," Raika said, waving a hand dismissively. "I think my parents would've liked to meet one of my new friends anyway. You understand this better than anyone else, I think."

"What do you mean?"

"Your mother," Raika said, as if it had been obvious from the start. "It may not be the same, but they're still our parents, and we still love them even though they're not in this world anymore. My uncle sometimes says I take after my father, but I have my mother's eyes. What about you?"

"I . . . I'm not sure," Chaud half-mumbled, looking down again. "I can't remember that much about her, but . . . I know she had long, white hair. Like . . . like ProtoMan's hair."

"Your father once told me that you look like her," ProtoMan suddenly said, surprising both Chaud and Raika. "Of course, I have never seen a picture of your mother, so I do not know if this is true. But you do not resemble _him_ very much, so I think it is."

"When did he say that?" Chaud asked him, confused.

"When you were born, or some time after you were born. I do not recall the exact date. But whenever I imagine your mother, I imagine someone who looks similar to you."

Chaud couldn't help but smile at that.

"I always imagine someone similar to you, actually," he admitted.

ProtoMan stared at him in stunned silence, and then he tried to speak. He failed, and instead settled for a slightly embarrassed but happy smile.

"You two . . . have an unusual relationship," Raika commented. Chaud glanced back up at him - he was watching them with a bemused smile, and SearchMan had just appeared on his shoulder and was also giving them a strange look, though he kept silent. Sometimes he was quieter than ProtoMan, which was impressive in itself.

"He's like my brother," Chaud said simply. "Isn't SearchMan the same for you?"

Raika and SearchMan exchanged a glance.

"I never thought about it before, but . . . yes, I suppose he is," Raika said, as they both smiled. Then he shook his head. "Ah, I've been out here too long, the cold's getting to me now - and you, probably. You don't like the cold much, do you?"

Chaud was surprised at the sudden change in topic, but he was at least grateful that Raika had pointed it out before him. He'd have felt rude if he'd said anything.

"Not really," he said. "You wanna go back before Lan demolishes all the food?"

"That boy can eat more than professionals, I swear," Raika muttered, and Chaud laughed.

Just before they left the graveyard together, Raika turned to Chaud again.

"Hey," he said. "Thank you. For listening to me, I mean. Most people wouldn't want to hear such a story."

"You needed to talk, and I don't mind listening, it's one thing I'm actually good at," Chaud replied.

"You're good at a lot of things, Chaud. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Now, about that food . . ."

"Yeah?"

"Do you know if there's any mint ice cream dessert?"

 **OOOOOO**

Fair warning to everyone, don't take this as gospel - Raika's story in this 'part' is just my own personal headcanon for his backstory, and why he was raised by his uncle rather than his parents. I don't recall there being any mention of Raika's mom or dad in canon, so this is how I interpreted it.

It's also a way for him and Chaud to bond. I've sort of put a backseat on Chaud's friendship with Lan in this, and I'm focusing more on the friendship between Chaud and Raika instead, but that's mainly because we already have a lot of interaction between Lan and Chaud in the actual anime/whatever else.

I don't know why, I just really like the idea of Raika acting like an older brother for Chaud. Same goes for SearchMan and ProtoMan, although in that case it's more ironic for _System Error_ 's canon since ProtoMan's way older than SearchMan is. On the other hand, it's played straight for Raika and Chaud, since Raika's the oldest of the Net Saver trio.

I love writing angst with a side of fluff. Also, sneaky-curious Chaud is the best.

Read and review!


	28. Nightmare, Part 1

OKAY in the spirit of Halloween, I'm gonna write this weirdness! Hopefully I can manage to write it before Halloween, cus I wanna upload it on that day specifically.

Which . . . gives me five days to write this. Hm. Well, I've managed worse. Though before I wasn't binge-playing _Skyrim_ or watching _Fairy Tail_. . . hmm . . . I may need to work fast.

But that's fine, because this is a horror-themed Halloween 'part'! Oh, Chaud's twelve in this, it's set after _Beast_. You know the drill by now.

Welcome to _Nightmare_.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Chaud huddled inside of a wardrobe that could barely be considered a hiding place, and watched the twisted _thing_ skulk around the room, searching for any trace of him.

His eyes were wide, and he had to clamp his hand over his mouth in case his terrified breathing reached the ears of the thing - if it even had ears. He couldn't see if it had anything it could hear with, but then he didn't really want to look at it for too long, so he hadn't been able to tell.

The thing suddenly reared up in front of the wardrobe he was hiding in, and Chaud just barely managed to restrain a gasp. He squeezed his eyes shut and hoped that the thing couldn't see him, his mind almost automatically returning to the reason why he was here.

A game. That was what this was, some stupid game that had gone horribly wrong.

Gabcom had decided they wanted to take a dip into the genre of survival horror gaming, and they'd created some sort of virtual reality headgear that literally put the player into the game. They'd tested it out, mostly on older people, but they also wanted to test it out on a younger audience to see how it would be received by people of all ages.

Well, it was more like Yai stole a copy of the game from her father's workplace and had used it to scare the living daylights out of everyone she got to play it. Lan was the first to try it, of course he was, and he only made it through the first five minutes. Maylu went next and she managed to last twice as long, and then Dex, Tory and Dingo all tried it out as well, with varying degrees of terror as the result. Raika had flat-out refused to play it, prompting the usual teasing of 'scaredy-cat, scaredy-cat!', but Chaud had been interested in the game - with the very appropriate title of _Nightmare_ \- and had been the last one to try it out.

That turned out to be a huge mistake on his part.

As the twisted thing moved away from the wardrobe he was hiding in, he cast his mind back to the conversation that had taken place just a few minutes after he'd started playing.

ProtoMan had somehow managed to hack into the game, and had materialised in front of Chaud, almost giving him a heart attack. But what his Navi said next had made his heart freeze entirely.

 _"Someone hacked into the game and managed to send some sort of electrical pulse throughout the entire system - we still do not know how, and we do not know why, either."_

 _"W-what? What does that mean, exactly?"_

 _"It means . . . you can't leave. No one knows how, but that electrical pulse somehow trapped you inside_ Nightmare _, and now, whatever happens to you in here happens to you out in the real world, too."_

 _"But who would do something like this!?"_

 _"Someone with a grudge against Gabcom, maybe, or Yai's family. Perhaps even you, because they seemed to wait until you were playing to fire out the pulse. Whatever the reason, they have trapped you inside the game, and if you die here you'll die for real. I apologise for this, but I have to leave you here for now - I'm going to try to hack into the game's system, try and fix this whatever that pulse broke. But . . . Chaud, I'm sorry, I can't guarantee that I can fix it."_

 _"S-so you're saying I might be stuck in this horror game for the rest of my life?"_

 _"No. Not necessarily. There is another way to get out of the game. It automatically stops running once a player completes the game, so . . . essentially, just in case I am unable to fix this, you will have to play through the game and finish it."_

 _"Play to the end? I can barely stand five minutes inside this thing! How am I supposed to last until the end?"_

 _"I . . . I do not know. I apologise for that. And for this."_

 _"Why can't you stay here? Why can't someone else go and hack the systems?"_

 _"Because even my presence here stretches the limits of the game's power. It was not designed for a Navi's interference, and to dump more than one Navi into it would cause it to crash - and therefore it would instantly kill you, too. I would stay here if I could, I would like nothing more, but I was tasked with hacking the systems and that is all I can do. If I fail, then I will attempt to find you again and I will assist you in finishing the game. Until then, please just try to get through this."_

And then he'd left.

He'd left Chaud completely alone, against various unseen threats. He only knew the bare minimum about the game, the others had only managed a few minutes before having to give up, and here he was, hours later, terrified and alone and trying to avoid that twisted thing that was probably the game's antagonist.

Well, one of them. It was the main one, at least the one he'd seen the most of so far, but he knew enough about _Nightmare_ to know that it was hardly the only enemy here.

And of course he had absolutely no way to defend himself, not that he'd be able to if he could, not against those things. Such was the true terror of the survival horror genre, being unable to fight back against evil and twisted things that kept trying to kill you throughout the entire game.

Chaud swore, if he ever got out this, that he was never going near anything from the horror genre ever again.

But at least that thing was finally gone, so he cautiously opened the wardrobe and crept out, towards the door. He had probably given it enough time to move on to some other place, and when he carefully opened the door - making sure not to make it creak - he spotted a shadow moving around near the end of the hall. That thing, judging by the size and shape.

He swallowed and edged into the hall, keeping an eye on the thing, and then he took off as carefully and as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

A few minutes later (though it felt like hours to his terrified mind) Chaud stepped into what looked like some sort of kitchen. Like the rest of the mansion this insane game was set in, the room was dark, gloomy, and was that a human head in the corner over there? And Yai thought this would be a fun game to play?

They were _kids_. And he was being forced to play through this without rest. Just perfect.

But there was a door on the other side of the room, closed of course, and he really didn't want to open it in case there was something behind it. No, scratch that, there was definitely gonna be something behind it. He was gonna open the door and then something would just suddenly appear in front of him and try to kill him, or just give him a heart attack.

It was the only way forward, though. He'd already checked the other rooms and halls behind him, however slow he had been forced to move because of that thing hunting him down, and he could see no other way.

Well, no time like the present. Or whatever.

He stepped through the kitchen, avoiding any spots that looked particularly vile (he also completely avoided the human head in the corner), and made it across the room without incident.

Maybe he should stand to one side? Just in case something _was_ waiting for him?

Yeah, that sounded like the best idea he'd had so far. The _worst_ idea he'd had so far was agreeing to play this game to start off with.

He stood to one side and turned the door handle slowly, and then pushed the door open, stepping back and watching intensely for anything that was about to come flying out at him.

When nothing happened for several moments, he let out a small breath of relief. He glanced around the kitchen one last time and went into the hall beyond, pausing a few feet away from the door.

Now he was in a hall that was almost identical to the ones he'd left behind, aside from the creepy pictures on the walls. Those were different, of course. He was pretty sure the eyes of the pictures had been following him all throughout this stupid ordeal, but he had no actual proof. He wouldn't be surprised if it turned out the pictures _were_ looking at him, though.

 _BANG._

Chaud let out a shriek and jumped about ten feet into the air. He crashed into a nearby cupboard and knocked out some wooden plates which clattered to the floor loudly, and once his head had stopped throbbing, he looked in the direction of the bang.

The kitchen door he'd just come through was closed. Most likely it had just been slammed shut, but by what? Not that thing from before, because it was actively trying to kill him, so did that mean there had been something else in those halls? Or maybe it had been hidden in the kitchen, waiting for him to leave.

Oh, he wished he'd asked for details about the game from Yai. Or from ProtoMan, when he'd been there. He had no idea what he was supposed to do to complete the game, and he had no idea where he was meant to go, or how he was supposed to survive long enough to figure out either of those things.

Chaud shook his head. Best not to think about that, not right now. The only thing he could do was wander around and try to figure it out at the same time.

He turned around again, and glanced down at the wooden plates. Then he blinked, surprised to see that the plates hadn't been the only things to fall off the cupboard - there was some old-looking piece of paper trapped under one of them.

Was it important? Useful? It could just be something that was of no help to him whatsoever, but he couldn't take any chances, not here.

He bent down and pulled the paper out from under the wooden plate, and unfolded it as he straightened up.

Then, despite his bleak situation, he started to grin.

It was a map. A map of what looked like the entire mansion, with all five of its floors - the loft and basement included in those five floors - drawn onto it. There was the kitchen, on the first floor, where he'd just come from, and there was the hall he was in right now, and the ones where he'd been running from that thing.

 _Maybe I can figure this out,_ Chaud thought, feeling something like actual hope flutter in his chest for the first time since ProtoMan had told him that he was trapped in this literal nightmare.

Now that he had a map, it'd be easier to keep track of where he was going, and what he was supposed to do. Of course he had no idea as to what the actual goal of this game was supposed to be for the player at the moment, but having this map was certainly a huge help.

He folded the map up and stowed it away inside his pocket. Best not to keep it in his hands in case he dropped it, or something attacked him and it got ripped.

Now, according to the map, if he headed through this hall and opened the second-to-last door on the right, he'd find himself in a stairwell that would take him to the second floor, and he decided to go in that direction because he really didn't have anything better to do.

Chaud had only gone a few steps when one of the doors to his left flew open.

 **OOOOOO**

I don't really know how scary I can make this without dumping a bunch of _Amnesia_ or _Outlast_ -style stuff into it, which isn't really a good idea since Chaud's fuckin' twelve.

Then again, Yai did sort of steal the game, and there was that human head in the kitchen, so I guess _Amnesia_ and _Outlast_ are probably the best-case-scenario in this situation. Well, sort of, since there's like a whole shitton of things that try to kill you in both of those games.

I'm gonna explain why I decided on this concept specifically for the Halloween-themed 'part'.

See, at college (well, sort of university, but it's at my old college, so I guess it still counts as college?), my teacher's given us an assignment called _Desolate Space_ , which is a VR-style survival horror game. We've been doing research (translation: playing survival horror games) into the genre so we can make the best/most terrifying game we can, and I decided to test out my knowledge of survival horror by writing this.

It's also very fitting because Halloween.

Look, my only other idea was to have a stalker/predator wandering around in the secret tunnels in Chaud's house, which was just far too creepy, so I went with this instead. I may still do that stalker idea, but I wanna know if anyone reading this will find that . . . well, not okay. If you're fine with me writing something like that, then I'll go ahead, but if anyone finds it extremely uncomfortable, just tell me and I won't do it, okay? I don't mind not doing it, the idea makes me a little uncomfortable as well, but for some reason I have the urge to write it.

ANYWAY MOVING ON FROM THAT.

Speaking of my _Desolate Space_ assignment, I've also created a questionnaire that helps me do exactly that. I wanna ask if any of you guys would be interested in filling it out for me, so I can get some more answers and get better research.

Though keep in mind this questionnaire is basically timed, so from about . . . I'm uploading this on Halloween hopefully, so two weeks from today, I can't accept any more answers. The reason why is because the first part of my assignment is due two weeks from now, so I can't really keep the questionnaire going past that.

Since this website refuses to let me type out links (damn you, admins, I wanna give people links! LET IT HAPPEN), if you wanna do my questionnaire, then just PM me on this website and ask for it, and I'll be happy to send you the link. Or alternatively if you want the link in an easier form than several-dozen-spaces-in-the-middle (because PMs aren't exempt from this stupid rule either, ugh), you can message me on my Tumblr account and I'll give it to you that way.

My Tumblr account is rennybanette, by the way. Thanks in advance for anyone who responds!

Read and review!


	29. Nightmare, Part 2

Hi guys, how's it going?

It was actually fucking cold enough to snow a few days ago . . . yikes. Snow. In October. Ugh.

DAMN IT ALL I WANT A WHITE CHRISTMAS BUT NOOOO INSTEAD THERE'S A CHANCE OF A WHITE HALLOWEEN INSTEAD. Thanks, weather. You may or may not ruin my Halloween and Christmas in one go.

Does anyone know how to kill the weather?

Moving on from that, a response to the review that Marianne Lidell left - I'm actually really happy that you were so into this that you didn't even notice you were at the end, that means I did a good job in writing this fic. And worry not, because you're getting _this_ new 'part'! And there's also another one, _TimeMan_ , which I put on pause so I could write this in time for Halloween.

Hopefully it's not so cold that my fingers freeze and I can't type.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

One of the doors to his left flew open, and Chaud jumped back, just barely swallowing another shriek.

He stood there for several moments, tensed up and waiting for something to come flying out of the room that was presumably beyond the door, but when nothing happened, he gradually began to relax.

It was probably a terrible idea, but he'd have to go past it anyway, so he crept towards the now-open door and flattened himself to the wall next to it. Very carefully, he peered around the corner into the room - it was indeed a room, a dark one at that, but he could see most of it from here - and nothing jumped out at him, so Chaud deemed it more or less safe to check out. You never know, there could be something useful in there.

Just as he was about to enter the room, he heard the sound of distant but rapid footsteps, like someone was running towards him.

Chaud gasped and stepped back, looking around wildly, but he couldn't make out which direction the footsteps were coming from. He peered into the room, looked over his shoulder, up and down, everywhere he could, but the distant footsteps just stayed the same no matter where he looked.

And suddenly the footsteps began to grow louder and louder under it sounded like they were right on top of him (or all around him, since the sound seemed to come from every direction at once). The footsteps were so loud by now that it was starting to make his ears hurt, and he covered them in an attempt to muffle the sound.

It didn't work, of course it didn't. The footsteps' sound remained the same no matter what he tried, so he settled for closing his eyes and hoping it would end soon.

Just as suddenly as they had started, the sound of the footsteps stopped. He stayed like he was for a while, too scared to realise that the sound was gone, but when he realised that he was no longer in danger of being deafened by mysterious footsteps, Chaud opened his eyes and lowered his hands.

He half-expected something to be in front of him, but nothing had changed.

He was relieved, until he felt something moving behind him. Chaud froze for a heartbeat and then spun around, and came face-to-face with the twisted thing that had been chasing him through the halls of the previous area.

This time he did shriek, stumbling back a few steps and tripping over his own feet. He landed on his backside and winced, then looked up when the thing started walking after him. Chaud let out a squeak of terror and started scrambling backwards as quickly as he could, but there was nowhere to go now because the thing was blocking his only exit.

It was just walking towards him, slowly. As if it knew that he didn't have anywhere else to go and wanted to enjoy itself, like it was playing some sort of sick game.

Chaud's back hit the wall and he froze entirely, watching the thing creep towards him. Now that it was close enough he could see that it had a single, wretched eye and the place where the other eye should have been was just a gaping and decayed hole. All it had for a mouth was just the lipless grin of a rotting corpse, and no other features - no ears, no nose, no hair, nothing but that single eye and the rotted grin.

He was going to die.

The thought flashed through his mind and stayed there, lodged into place, as he watched the thing slowly reach out with its hand. There seemed to be some sort of material hanging off the limb, and it took him a moment to realise that it was flesh.

He tried pressing himself further into the wall, but it was solid and refused to let him get any further away from the thing. He tried scrambling back but it still didn't work.

The thing was inches away now, and Chaud made a high-pitched keening sound and huddled into a ball, trying in vain to protect himself.

 _SLASH._

Chaud flinched away, curling up as tightly as he could.

"It's alright," a gentle voice said. "You are safe now."

He shook his head, not believing the voice, and yelped when a hand settled on his head.

"Chaud, look at me," the voice said. "I deleted it, you are safe. Open your eyes . . . That's it, just look at me . . . There you go."

"P-ProtoMan?" Chaud whispered, eyes now wide open in shock.

ProtoMan was crouched in front of him, one hand on top of Chaud's head and the other formed into a sword. He was giving Chaud a small, reassuring smile.

"Can you stand up?" ProtoMan asked him. He banished his sword and offered both hands to Chaud, who took the offer numbly and stood up with his Navi's assistance, still gaping at him. "You have no need to be afraid now. Listen-"

"ProtoMan!" Chaud cried, flinging himself at ProtoMan.

ProtoMan was no doubt shocked at the sudden glomp, but Chaud honestly didn't care at this point. He was just so relieved, and he never wanted to let go.

"ProtoMan . . ." Chaud repeated, tightening his grip. He was pretty sure he was crying but again, he really didn't care.

"It's alright." ProtoMan, once he recovered from the shock, wrapped his own arms around Chaud. "It's alright . . . Shh, it's alright, don't cry . . ."

For some reason he couldn't stop. Chaud just buried his face in ProtoMan's chest and listened to his Navi's quiet words.

When he eventually calmed down, he managed to stop crying. But he didn't want to let go of ProtoMan, so he didn't, and ProtoMan didn't bother trying to get him off. This was probably annoying ProtoMan (it wasn't, but Chaud didn't know that) but as long as he was letting Chaud cling to him like this, it was fine.

After a minute or two of silence, ProtoMan sighed.

"Pause game," he said, loudly and clearly.

Chaud looked up at him, confused, but ProtoMan wasn't looking at him. Instead, he was looking at the HUD menu that had appeared out of thin air and was just hanging in front of them, completely out of place in the old mansion.

"End game," ProtoMan said to it. The 'end' option lit up, and then suddenly the entire world fell apart.

When Chaud opened his eyes, he saw nothing but darkness. He panicked for a moment, thinking something had gone wrong, and struggled when someone put their hands on his shoulders and held him still.

"Calm down, I need to get the headset off you," Raika's voice snapped.

He immediately went limp and allowed Raika to pull the VR headset off him. The light of the room his physical body had been in this entire time was bright, especially after spending so much time inside that dark mansion, and Chaud winced.

"Are you okay?" Lan asked worriedly, leaning forward.

"You're crying," Maylu gasped softly.

Chaud blinked at them and put a hand to his cheek. It was wet with tears. He was indeed crying.

So, ProtoMan had been right then. Whatever happened to him in there really did happen to him out here. But if that was the case, how come his head wasn't hurting? He'd hit that cupboard and all, so why?

And for some reason, as he looked around at his friends, all he saw were guilty faces. The exception being the Navis - although Glide and ProtoMan looked particularly shame-faced - and Raika, who was glaring at the VR headset as if he was trying to set it on fire. Chaud didn't blame him.

"What's wrong?" Chaud asked, sensing that something was up just from the faces all around him. "Did the person who hacked into the game get away or something?"

"Um," Dingo said, not looking at Chaud, "no."

"So they were caught? But why is everyone acting like this?"

"W-well," Maylu mumbled, "it's just . . ."

"The game was never hacked," Raika said, so firmly that everyone turned around and looked at him.

Chaud tried to process that.

"But . . . what . . ." He gave up trying to speak and instead glanced at ProtoMan, hoping for an explanation.

ProtoMan couldn't meet his eyes.

"It was a prank," ProtoMan admitted.

All Chaud could do was stare at him blankly.

"What," he said.

"It was Miss Yai's idea," Glide said, with a glance at his operator, who was trying to pretend she wasn't in the room. "She expressed a desire to see you scared, and this game presented the perfect opportunity. She . . . managed to get the others to agree - aside from Sir Raika, who said he would not take part in this - and they set this up so you would play the game, _Nightmare_."

"No one hacked into the game, and an electrical pulse was never released," Raika said. "The entire thing was one big lie so the prank could be pulled off. You were never in any danger of dying."

"But . . . but . . ." Chaud was speechless for a moment. He found his voice pretty quickly, though. "But if that's true, then why am I crying? ProtoMan told me- h-he said that whatever happened to me in the game would happen to me in real life. So . . . if that wasn't true, then why am I crying?"

"It is an emotional reaction," ProtoMan explained quietly, "not a physical one. Any physical damage you took in the game was not real, but the emotional responses were."

"Oh," was all Chaud could think of saying to that. "And . . . this all means you lied to me."

"I . . . Yes," ProtoMan sighed. "I did lie to you."

"Why?"

If ProtoMan had been expecting anger, then Chaud wasn't sorry to disappoint him. He wasn't angry, he just wanted to know why.

"It sounds incredibly stupid and selfish in hindsight," ProtoMan said, "but I was curious to see how you would react in a situation such as that one. But . . . I did not want to go through with it, in the end. This whole prank went too far. I asked Raika to jack me into the game so I could get you out."

ProtoMan took a deep breath, and looked up to meet Chaud's eyes.

"I do not expect you to forgive me," he said. "But I apologise for letting this go on for so long."

"I do forgive you, because you stopped it," Chaud said, and ProtoMan looked immensely relieved. Chaud turned his attention to Yai. "But how did you manage to get him to agree to it? And why me, specifically?"

"Because you're never scared!" Yai burst out, abandoning her attempt at becoming invisible and just going on the defence. "Every single time there's a crisis, you're always the calmest out of all of us - except maybe Raika. And besides, you didn't _have_ to play _Nightmare_ , so really when you think about it, this is sort of your own fault!"

"It's my own fault that you decided you'd like to terrorise me by lying and making me think I was constantly moments away from dying a horrible death?" Chaud deadpanned. "Even if I hadn't decided to play the game on my own, you would have found some way to force me into it anyway. Am I wrong?"

" . . . No," Yai muttered sullenly.

"That's what I thought," Chaud said. "Who gave you the right to play with people like that, anyway? Do you have any idea how terrified I was?"

"Kinda," Yai mumbled. "We could see you on the monitor, remember."

Ah, that was right - the game was connected to a monitor so outsiders could watch the player's progress through the game.

"Right," Chaud said firmly, "I am never playing anything that your father's company comes out with again. And I'm staying the hell away from anything in the horror genre."

"Does that mean you'll be joining MegaMan behind the sofa whenever we watch a horror movie?" Lan asked curiously.

"No, it means I'll be as far away from your house as physically possible."

Chaud stood up - taking ProtoMan's still half-ashamed hologram with him - and made his way over to the door.

Just before he left, he paused.

"Oh, and Yai?" Chaud called.

"What?"

He glanced over his shoulder and gave her a wicked smirk.

"I'm gonna get revenge for this," he informed her. "It may not be immediately, but it'll happen at some point, and you won't see it coming. That goes for all of you, except Raika, cus he didn't do anything wrong."

And then he left them to worry about that.

 **OOOOOO**

HAH. I didn't think I'd manage it, but I did, and here it is - the Halloween special of _System Error_ , _Nightmare_!

I'll be getting back to _TimeMan_ soon, so hopefully it'll be uploaded after this one. After _TimeMan_ , I'm planning on writing something called _Blind Panic_ (you can all probably guess what that one's about), and then I'll be writing a sort-of follow-up to _What's Solid?_ , because I was planning on having a follow-up for it anyway.

I swear I wanted to write some more for this AN, but ugh, I can't remember . . .

Oh wait.

About that white Halloween thing earlier - looks like it might not be a white Halloween, just a cold one. I still want a white Christmas, though . . .

Ah, there was also something else I just remembered - Yai talking about Chaud not being scared. She's entirely wrong there, Chaud's scared pretty much all the time, it's just that he's gotten really good at hiding it.

Read and review!


	30. TimeMan, Part 1

I forgot to mention in the last chapter (not _Nightmare_ , in the _I'm Listening_ one, since this got paused while I wrote the Halloween special) what Chaud's age was, but I think we all know anyway, since we had holograms and Raika being a softie again.

But anyway, here we have something else entirely - and I'm super-excited to write this because we get to see Chaud going nuts like he did in _War Games_. Well, maybe not exactly that, but it's enough to freak out a certain someone whose role I won't mention because massive spoilers.

Also, here's a little spoiler, but there's gonna be a Navi - well, a Darkloid - by the name of TimeMan here. You probably already knew that from the fact that this 'part' is literally called _TimeMan_ , but I bounced some ideas off Cin and decided to use TimeMan as the bad guy here rather than ClockMan, since he's already in the franchise (well, I think he is) and as far as I can tell, there's no TimeMan running around.

ClockMan is the Navi version of the original Time Man, I know that, but I needed a time-travel Navi/Darkloid that wasn't already a character anywhere, and TimeMan was the best option I could come up with. As for what TimeMan looks like, just . . . I dunno, refer to his original Time Man design and add some Navi-like features I guess? He's purple and he can time travel, that's all I care about.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"I hate Darkloids," Lan muttered.

"You've said," Chaud replied.

"No, I don't think you understand, I _really hate_ Darkloids."

"You've. Said."

"Can you two stop arguing for more than three seconds?" Raika sighed, peering around the corner to check that they weren't being pursued. "If he doesn't find us by pure luck, he'll hear you two arguing and it won't be luck at all."

Lan mimicked his voice in a high-pitched mocking tone, and Raika glared at him. Lan immediately shut up.

Then they heard slow footsteps coming from the hallway they'd just come escaped from, and all three of them grew serious. Raika readied his Scope Gun and Lan silently activated his Mega Buster, while Chaud tightened his grip on the power block he was clutching in his arms.

Their current enemy was one of the leftover Darkloids, a powerful and extremely sadistic Darkloid by the name of TimeMan. They weren't sure why he wanted the power block, but Chaud had managed to snatch it from under him while Lan and Raika distracted him, and now they were running from TimeMan as he slowly searched for them. The main reason he was going slow was because the dimensional area that was overhead was his own and therefore he had no need to worry about it being cancelled so the trio of Net Savers couldn't escape from him, but Chaud suspected that he was enjoying the psychological terror he was inflicting on the three of them.

Typical Darkloid.

 _[Raika suggests that we speak for our operators,]_ SearchMan suddenly said, almost startling Chaud into dropping the power block. _[No one other than those who are also Cross Fused can hear us unless we speak via the humans, so TimeMan won't be able to hear us if we speak like this.]_

 _[Good thinking,]_ ProtoMan said, echoing what had been going through Chaud's mind at that moment, which was probably what Raika had had in mind to start off with.

There was a moment of silence in which Lan made a very strange face, and then MegaMan's voice exploded over their connection.

 _[I am_ not _saying that!]_

Chaud and Raika winced at the volume.

 _[Ah . . . sorry,]_ MegaMan said, quieter now. _[But I wasn't gonna say that. It was too rude.]_

Chaud almost wanted to know what Lan had said, but there wasn't time. The slow footsteps were getting closer to their hiding spot.

 _[Chaud suggests we leave, and now,]_ ProtoMan said, translating Chaud's thoughts into words. _[I also second that idea. TimeMan should not get his hands on this, whatever he wishes to use it for.]_

Raika nodded, and stood up slowly and silently. He glanced over his shoulder and then gestured down the hall, in the opposite direction of the hall where TimeMan was bearing down on them. Chaud and Lan got up and began creeping along the wall while Raika kept an eye out behind them.

They kept going until they found their way back to the lab they'd originally found TimeMan attempting to steal the power block from. The power block had been powering some sort of machine that not even Chaud could understand (scientists were forever creating weird and wonderful things that no one understood), but they couldn't put it back because TimeMan had ripped it out of the machine before they got there and none of them could figure out where it was supposed to go.

"Now what?" Lan asked, and he was instantly shushed by everyone else. He winced and held up his hands.

 _[He says 'sorry',]_ MegaMan informed Chaud and Raika. _[And he still wants to know what we're gonna do now.]_

 _[That is also something we would like to know,]_ ProtoMan said, speaking for both himself and Chaud. _[We are in the lab again, yet we cannot hide the power block, nor can we hide or barricade ourselves in here.]_

 _[Raika suggests we keep going until we find the dimensional converters and then we break them, which will hopefully get rid of TimeMan,]_ SearchMan replied.

Chaud thought that was a solid plan, until he realised there was one gaping hole in it.

 _[TimeMan can easily repair any of them,]_ ProtoMan reminded their friends. _[That is one of his abilities, remember?]_

 _[Is it?]_ MegaMan asked, and Chaud wondered if he was speaking for Lan or for himself.

Raika nodded while SearchMan spoke for him.

 _[He was able to rebuild that wall we broke down when we were trying to stop him from getting into the research facility,]_ he said. _[We may not know exactly how powerful he is, but he seemes to have some degree of control over time itself, at least enough to speed up or reverse something that happens to an object. That makes this a lot more difficult, and our plan null and void . . .]_

 _[This should be fun,]_ ProtoMan said dryly, directly quoting what Chaud was thinking.

But it seemed that TimeMan had gotten sick of wandering around slowly. Before anyone could come up with any sort of plan to escape or at least stop him from doing whatever he was doing with the power block, there was a bright flash of what looked like dark grey light in the lab, and suddenly TimeMan was floating a few inches above the ground in between all three of them.

"Give me the power block," he demanded, looking directly at Chaud and holding out his hand.

"No," Chaud snapped. There wasn't much point in keeping silent now that TimeMan had found them, however he had managed it.

TimeMan's eyes narrowed. Behind him, Chaud could see Lan and Raika silently charging up their Mega Buster and Scope Gun respectively, and he decided to try and keep TimeMan focused on him so they could score some sort of hit on the tricky Darkloid. He'd been difficult to attack before, since he could apparently teleport short distances (which meant he'd probably been outside the lab before he'd teleported in, so he hadn't been that far behind them) and had spammed that ability for all its worth.

 _[Tell him to repair his own head, he is clearly not in his right mind,]_ ProtoMan advised Chaud.

 _I'm not insulting a Darkloid who is perfectly happy with ripping my limbs off, thank you very much,_ Chaud hissed back.

"Hand it over and I won't drop half the building on your friends, who seem to think that I don't know what a charged shot sounds like," TimeMan snapped.

Lan and Raika froze but didn't stop charing up their attacks. They both glanced at Chaud, who stared back somewhat helplessly. Then he turned his attention back to TimeMan and made a split-second decision.

"Come and get it, airhead!" he shouted, whirling around and running off in a random direction.

TimeMan let out a wordless roar of sheer rage, which made Chaud stumble for a second out of shock, but he kept going and dodged a blast of dark grey light. He'd seen what TimeMan looked like before he'd Cross Fused, and now TimeMan himself was the same dark grey colour, so Chaud guessed that the dark grey was actually purple.

But now wasn't the time to contemplate what colour the blasts of light that TimeMan was throwing at him were, now was the time to avoid those blasts of light because they cracked the ground at his feet and no doubt could do some serious damage.

Chaud really didn't want to know what would happen if he got hit with one of those blasts, so he kept running around randomly, keeping the Darkloid's attention on himself and the power block so that Lan and Raika could hopefully hit him. And soon. He also wasn't sure how long he could keep this up before something stupid happened.

His friends were trying to track TimeMan's movements with their weapons, but he was spamming his teleportation ability again in an attempt to catch Chaud off-guard. It didn't work as well as the Darkloid hoped, since he was trying to catch the fastest of the Net Saver trio, but eventually he managed to make Chaud slip up.

One of TimeMan's blasts of presumably-purple light hit the ground right where Chaud had been about to run, and he staggered to a halt so abruptly that he tripped over and fell onto his front. He was still clutching the power block and he kept it in his arms, crouching over it as TimeMan appeared beside him.

"Hand it over, hybrid filth," the Darkloid hissed, reaching down.

He tried to take it from Chaud, but Chaud just tightened his grip and didn't even let him touch it. TimeMan growled and grabbed Chaud by his hair, pulling him into the air while he struggled in vain. But even though he was being held very painfully, he still refused to let go of the power block, and somehow kept a hold of it when TimeMan tried to pry it out of his hands.

 _[Let go!]_ ProtoMan snapped, not at Chaud, but at TimeMan. _[You're hurting him - us - let go, Darkloid, let go!]_

 _He can't hear you,_ Chaud reminded him, having to concentrate a little more than usual to speak to him.

 _[I will_ make _him hear me!]_

Luckily, Lan and Raika could hear him, and they did it for him.

"Let go of him!" Raika shouted, aiming his Scope Gun directly at the place where a Navi's main power systems - their NaviMarks - would normally be. For a Darkloid, this power was called the Darkloid factor.

TimeMan scowled and spun around to face him, holding Chaud out in front of him like a shield.

"If you wish to hit me," he snarled, "then you'll need to shoot through your friend."

"You forgot there's two of us and one of you!" Lan reminded him, taking up a position directly behind TimeMan.

TimeMan glanced over his shoulder and his scowl grew deeper.

Meanwhile, Chaud was beginning to really feel the pain of being held up his hair, and he was starting to wonder if it was at all possible for it to be ripped out while he was in Cross Fusion, since it was technically data. He struggled, weakly trying to kick out at TimeMan, but the Darkloid kept him at arms' length and he couldn't reach far enough to hit him.

"I suppose there's no other choice," TimeMan muttered. He glared directly at Chaud, and reached out to grab the power block in one hand.

Chaud was still holding onto it as tightly as he dared (it could break if he held it too tightly, and he didn't know if the scientists who worked in the research facility could make another power block like this one), but now it didn't seem like TimeMan was trying to pry it out of his hands.

Instead he appeared to be trying to activate it.

Upon realising that, Chaud began struggling even more, but he could do nothing to stop TimeMan when he wasn't even sure what he was trying to do to start off with.

"Stop it!" Raika cried, trying to come forward, but TimeMan had dumped some sort of barrier in the way and he couldn't come any closer. Lan tried as well, pounding on the other side, but even he couldn't get through.

"I'll drag you with me and kill you myself," TimeMan hissed to Chaud.

There was a bright light coming from the power block and, Chaud realised, it was reacting with the NaviMarks on his chest and hands. There was also some sort of dark light flowing from TimeMan's Darkloid factors, flowing right into the power block and mixing with the light that was coming from it.

The light grew and grew until Chaud could see nothing else. He could still hear his friends shouting, but the light was all he could see, and he wanted to close his eyes against it, but for some reason he just couldn't.

And then everything exploded.

 **OOOOOO**

Who can guess what's gonna happen next?

I don't know how many chapters _TimeMan_ will have - it might end up like _War Games_ and have two or three more chapters than I planned for, but since this might as well have been the plot of a proper fic, I think it's safe to say that it'll be five at the very least.

Also, TimeMan is an asshole. He's also a Darkloid and he wants that power block for something, but for what?

You'll find out at some point, but not right now because spoilers.

Read and review!


	31. TimeMan, Part 2

And I continue to have internet problems . . . Not even sure if I'll be able to upload this when I've finished it. You guys may be forced to wait for several thousand years.

In advance, I apologise if anything dumb happens while my internet is being bitchy. I think it's cus some idiot opened up the network box outside and left it open while it was raining. Man, England is stereotyped as prim and proper and fancy and intelligent, but in reality we're all fucking idiots who like poking the asses of murderous geese.

In this analogy I am the geese. I'm extremely annoyed because I can't watch _Fairy Tail_ anymore, and I'm on episode 104 AND IT WAS GETTING GOOD TOO. DAMN ALL OF IT.

Anyway, time for the chapter. And funny I should mention 'time'. You'll see in a minute.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

He couldn't see anything but pure darkness. It took him half a second to realise that was because his eyes were closed, but he was too drained to open them, and he just lay where he was, not wanting to do anything. He hurt. A lot. He also didn't want to do anything. Had he already said that? Well, it was true, he did _not_ wanna do anything.

 _[ . . . Chaud . . .]_

Nevermind.

Chaud forced his eyes open, and saw nothing but grey bricks. A wall. A quick look around revealed that he was sitting slumped in some alley, but he didn't recognise the alley at all, nor did he know how he'd gotten here.

Wait, hadn't he been inside a lab before?

All of a sudden the memories came back, and he sat up abruptly. That was a mistake as he felt dizzy and mildly ill not a moment later, and he slumped against the wall, hand on his head and moaning quietly. His head hurt. Maybe it was a concussion or something.

As soon as he'd thought that, he felt a strange but soothing sensation all over. Chaud sighed and let it spread.

 _[Is that better?]_

"Mm," Chaud mumbled.

He sat there for another moment before he realised that something was wrong here.

"ProtoMan?" he asked, sitting bolt upright again. He looked around, only now just noticing that everything was still black and white. So even if he had no idea where he was, he was still in Cross Fusion. That was sort of okay.

 _[I do not know where we are either,]_ ProtoMan replied to his unasked question. _[I only woke up when you did. As far as I can tell, we are not in the research facility anymore. I cannot find Lan or Raika, either.]_

"Great," Chaud sighed. "But we're still in the dimensional area, so we should be somewhere nearby. Do you have any idea what happened to the power block? Or TimeMan, for that matter."

 _[I am uncertain about TimeMan, I cannot find his data signiture anywhere. As for the power block . . . I am also uncertain, but there is something strange in our systems. I do not know what it is, but it was not there before the explosion.]_

"So TimeMan activating the power block caused some sort of glitch?" Chaud guessed. "As if we don't already have enough glitches to start off with." He stood up carefully, using the wall as a support.

 _[We should try to find the research facility and rejoin the fight,]_ ProtoMan said. _[If TimeMan is still there, Lan and Raika face a difficult battle.]_

That sounded like a good plan, so Chaud limped out of the alley.

He stopped dead.

 _[ . . . I no longer believe we are near the research facility,]_ ProtoMan said quietly, just as shocked as Chaud.

There were people walking past, normal people going about their daily business. Some of them glanced at Chaud as they went by and then did a double take, surprise evident in their expressions. But these were just normal people, and he was pretty sure the research facility was nowhere near the civilian population. The dimensional area had been over the research facility and a couple of other buildings, and all of the scientists had been evacuated the moment it became evident that they were under attack by a Darkloid. No civilians had been anywhere nearby.

So why were there completely normal people walking past him?

 _[We have a more pressing matter, I think,]_ ProtoMan said.

"And that is?" Chaud asked, still staring around with wide eyes.

 _[We are not near the research facility. We are in DenTech City, near civilians. Unless the dimensional area has somehow moved, we are no longer under the shield. So why are we still in Cross Fusion?]_

Chaud hadn't thought of that.

"Maybe . . . it has something to do with that glitch?" Chaud suggested.

 _[Perhaps.]_ ProtoMan sounded a little skeptical. _[But have you ever heard of a glitch that allows a human and Navi to Cross Fuse without a dimensional area? I know it was possible in Beyondard, but that world is a mixture of the cyberworld and the real world. In our world, this is just the real world. By all rights we should not be able to stay Cross Fused.]_

"The good news is, we won't need to worry about getting attacked," Chaud muttered. "And we can probably just walk back through the shield if we find it."

 _[True . . .]_

Chaud shook his head, and started forward. He could figure this weirdness out later, right now he needed to get back to the research facility and help his friends.

He ignored the whispers he was getting, walking down the street like this. But it did puzzle him - Cross Fusion wasn't exactly a secret, people had seen him fighting with it before, so why were people looking at him like he was just some weird kid in a stupid costume? He'd never felt so embarrassed.

 _[Chaud, something else is strange about this,]_ ProtoMan said, sounding just as uncomfortable as Chaud felt. _[I've been checking the networks, and they don't exactly feel . . . right.]_

"Are we in another world again?" Chaud asked, because that was a valid concern. Maybe whatever TimeMan had done to the power block had ripped open a Fossa Ambience and they'd ended up in Beyondard. Or some other world.

 _[No, this is certainly our world. But . . . how do I describe it . . . The network feels older, somehow.]_

The first thing that Chaud thought of was the Duo incident and the Past Gate.

 _[Something like that, yes, but this is still familiar,]_ ProtoMan said. _[I cannot understand it.]_

"Neither can I," Chaud said quietly. "But we'll figure it out later - for now, we need to get back to the research facility."

 _[Of course,]_ ProtoMan agreed.

Walking to the research facility seemed like a good idea, but there was just one problem when it came to putting his plan in motion - location. He had no idea where in DenTech he was, and he didn't want to Cross Out just in case that weird glitch ProtoMan detected did something horrible. The trouble with that was that he couldn't jack ProtoMan in anywhere to find out how to get back to the research facility.

They ended up wandering around aimlessly for hours. Chaud did try asking people where exactly he was, but they took one look at him and walked off (there were various reactions - some people seemed to think he was cosplaying a superhero and just laughed in his face, while others, mostly older people, looked at him scornfully and ignored him), so by the time night fell he was still none the wiser.

But eventually his aimless wandering did some good - he'd finally managed to get somewhere he knew, a section of DenTech that was abundant in high-class restaurants. He'd eaten here once or twice when he'd been in the area, but the food that was served was a bit too . . . well, rich for his tastes. Which was sort of ironic for him.

Chaud walked out onto the road, and was almost run over. The only reason the cars didn't hit him was because of his extra speed in Cross Fusion, and he zipped to the other side of the road faster than a blink of an eye, much to the shock of anyone watching him.

"Crazy car drivers," Chaud hissed, glaring at the cars now zooming past. "I don't care if I'm half-Navi right now, they should still wait until the road's clear of people."

 _[I do not think it is their fault,]_ ProtoMan said, sounding surprised. _[The lights changed when you were halfway across.]_

"What? But . . . it had only just changed . . ."

 _[Look at the lights all over the street. They are going haywire,]_ ProtoMan said.

Chaud looked up. It was true - the lights were switching from the lighter grey to the darker grey and back again over and over. His first thought was that maybe TimeMan was wreaking havoc in the traffic lights system, but something didn't sit right with that explanation. And . . . for some reason, this felt really familiar.

 _[Chaud! Look at that screen over there!]_

Hearing the frantic tone in ProtoMan's usually-calm voice was startling. Chaud looked up, finding the screen that his Navi was talking about mainly because ProtoMan helped him locate it, and as soon as he saw what was on the screen, he suddenly understood why ProtoMan was freaking out.

MegaMan was on the screen, fighting off a bunch of viruses. That wasn't unusual in itself, but what was truly startling was the fact that ProtoMan was there too, in the background of MegaMan's fight. Another screen nearby showed the battle from a different angle, closer to the ProtoMan on the screen.

" . . . Please tell me I'm wrong," Chaud said.

 _[No wonder you felt this was familiar . . .]_ ProtoMan mumbled.

Chaud shook his head and started off down the street. He was hoping, hoping so much that what he was about to see wasn't real and that he was just horribly mistaken, but as soon as he rounded a corner, his hopes were dashed.

Lan was standing on one side of the street, holding the old blue model of the PET. On the other side was Chaud himself, not in Cross Fusion but a regular human, holding his custom red model of the old PET. Both PETs were jacked in to the traffic lights next to both Lan and the other Chaud, and just beyond them, Chaud could see Lan's group of friends, plus his teacher Ms. Mari and that battle chip maniac Higsby.

"Oh no," Chaud whispered. "We're in the past."

 **OOOOOO**

Come on, be honest, who saw that one coming the moment you knew TimeMan was gonna be the bad guy?

And since this entire fic focuses on Chaud and ProtoMan, of course they'll be the ones to get thrown back in time.

It took some thinking to decide where exactly I wanted to dump them. I was definitely gonna have them get thrown into the original series somewhere, and my best idea was to have them somewhere near the N1 Grand Prix, but I kept wondering whether or not I should put them before or after it.

The reason why I kept wondering all that is because I wanted to write the asshole that Chaud was back in the original series (before the N1) reacting to the sort-of lunatic that Chaud is now.

Plus he's still in Cross Fusion, so there's something else for everyone to freak out about.

That glitch is important, by the way, remember it.

Read and review!


	32. TimeMan, Part 3

MY INTERNET'S WORKING AGAIN IT LET ME WATCH SOME MORE _FAIRY TAIL_.

Don't be surprised if I write some more property destruction, I always seem to be in a 'break everything in sight' mood whenever I watch _Fairy Tail_ , it's one of the best animes out there, I swear. I love it.

Anyway, we're getting into the thick of things now. I'm torn between throwing some viruses into the mix purely to make this more difficult for Chaud, but we'll have to see I guess.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Chaud stared for a moment in stunned silence, before he spun around and walked in the opposite direction.

 _[What are you doing?]_ ProtoMan asked, not angry or accusing, but simply curious.

"If we really are in the past, then we can't be seen," Chaud explained. "It was fine with the Duo thing because we were dealing with the cyberworld, but this is the real world, and we don't have a cosmic reset button in the form of an alien NetNavi to set things right. We don't even know how we got here. So let's avoid contact with our past selves."

 _[That is a good plan,]_ ProtoMan said. Chaud could tell there was a 'but' coming. _[Except . . .]_ There it was. _[TimeMan is also likely to be here. He may go after them.]_

Chaud paused. He'd just turned the corner and was back in the street where he'd almost been run over, but ProtoMan's words had brought him to a stop.

"That's . . . a valid point," he admitted reluctantly. "But still, we can't do anything here, we'd screw up the past - and maybe erase the entire future, us included."

 _[I am fairly certain the timeline is less fragile than you imagine.]_

Chaud shook his head and started walking again. However, before he could move more than a single step, there was an explosion and panicked screaming broke out from the street where his past self and the past Lan were fighting off the viruses in the traffic lights system.

" . . . I don't remember an explosion or anyone screaming like that," Chaud muttered.

He already knew what ProtoMan was thinking, so he sighed and turned on his heel, going back to the same street he'd just come from. He peered around the corner, and went still.

TimeMan was floating a few inches off the ground in the middle of the street, glaring directly at Chaud's past self, who was sprawled on his backside and gaping at the Darkloid in front of him. The ground around TimeMan was torn up and broken, which at least explained the explosion. Lan was somewhere behind TimeMan, looking terrified, and judging by the way Ms. Mari was clutching at him, she'd managed to pull him out of the way before TimeMan made a pancake out of him. The same couldn't be said of Chaud's past self, who was too far away for anyone to help.

"Where is it?" TimeMan demanded.

Chaud's past self made a choked sound, too scared to respond.

"This is why I hate dealing with humans, you're all simple-minded," TimeMan spat. "Give me your half of the power block and I'll allow you to keep your life!"

"'Your half'?" Chaud repeated quietly, half-hiding around the corner so TimeMan wouldn't see him.

 _[The glitch,]_ ProtoMan realised. _[That must be it - the power block was activated by TimeMan, and it reacted to our power because we were holding on to it. Perhaps it was turned into data when TimaMan activated it, and we absorbed one half of it, while he absorbed the other. And he believes that your past self is in fact you, and therefore believes that he holds the half that we hold.]_

"And the power block glitch is why we're able to stay in Cross Fusion without a dimensional area, and why he's suddenly here without one too," Chaud added. "Why do scientists always manage to create stuff that can do wonderful things like this, and why does it always get stolen by the bad guys?"

 _[The world is a cruel place. I suggest we rescue your past self and everyone else, because if TimeMan kills them all, our future will cease to exist. It's less of a risk to reveal ourselves than it is if we allow them to die horribly.]_

"Good point," Chaud admitted.

He watched the scene unfold before him for a moment more before running out into the street, in plain view.

"Give me your half of the power block!" TimeMan snapped at Chaud's past self.

"HEY MORON!"

 _[Is that the best you can come up with?]_

 _Zip it,_ Chaud replied, ignoring the smug amusement he got in response.

Every head was now turned in his direction. TimeMan's expression was one of shock, and then frustration, as he realised that he was threatening the wrong person. Meanwhile, Chaud's past self and everyone else were just plain confused.

Chaud spared his past self a glance and saw his eyes widen in recognition. Oh, right, he looked like a fancy version of ProtoMan during Cross Fusion.

He turned his attention back to TimeMan and glared at the Darkloid.

"Now I see," TimeMan said slowly, eyes narrowed. "He's not the one I need, it's you. Hand over your half of the power block or suffer the consequences!"

"Yeah, I don't think so," Chaud snapped back. He wasn't sure if this would work, but he took a gamble - and he activated a Proto Sword on his right arm.

He was half-surprised, but he didn't show it, instead rushing at TimeMan to deliver a slash which would have made contact had TimeMan not teleported out of the way. But he wasn't stupid, and he knew every common teleporter-trick, so Chaud spun around just as TimeMan appeared behind him, ready with another attack.

This time it connected and TimeMan lingered long enough to give him a scowl, and then he teleported away to a nearby car. The inhabitants of the car screamed and quickly scrambled out as TimeMan pointed his hand at it and lifted it telekinetically, then threw it at Chaud, who sliced it in half, letting the two parts fly past either side, and barely flinched at the resulting explosion.

TimeMan teleported right in front of him with his hand glowing that weird grey colour that was probably purple. Chaud quickly downloaded a Wide Blade to replace the Proto Sword and swung it in a wide arc at the glowing hand, breaking TimeMan's concentration and forcing him back a few paces - though the Darkloid floated back rather than stepped, because for some reason he seemed to enjoy floating in mid-air for no reason.

 _[Move!]_ ProtoMan snapped.

Chaud didn't even question him - he already knew anyway - and he jumped to the side just in time to avoid the grey explosion that had been building up on the ground where he'd just been standing.

So TimeMan didn't just make that maybe-purple energy from his hands. Good to know.

The street was now empty of people (aside from his past self and the past versions of Lan and the others, for whatever reason), so when TimeMan began building up more energy to throw at him, he ran for cover behind a van and swung his Wide Blade at it, shoving it towards TimeMan as a distraction. The van collided with the energy and exploded violently, obscuring everything in a thick band of smoke.

Chaud banished the Wide Blade and looked around. He couldn't see a thing through all this smoke, but he was sure that TimeMan was gonna try and use it to sneak up on him.

Fortunately, Chaud wasn't alone in this body. ProtoMan was keeping an eye out in his blind spots.

 _[Behind you,]_ ProtoMan said quickly, and Chaud spun around, downloading a Sword and slicing a Sonic Boom at TimeMan, who looked shocked to have been discovered so fast and vanished again.

The Sonic Boom cut through the smoke and got rid of some of it, but most of it was still there. Chaud spun around, holding out his Sword to fend off any attempts at sneak attack, and began throwing out Sonic Booms all over the place to cut the rest of the smoke out of sight. As soon as it was all clear, he spotted TimeMan.

He was standing over Chaud's past self, energy glowing in the palm of him hand and held out over Chaud's past self's head. TimeMan was glaring directly at Chaud.

"Hand it over," TimeMan hissed. "Or he dies, and you too."

"You'll be erasing yourself as well," Chaud reminded him.

TimeMan laughed spitefully. "I control time itself, you insignificant hybrid freak! You think something as little as killing this boy would erase me? Only you! Only your future! I would remain!"

"Why are you TimeMan and not ControlFreakMan?" Chaud muttered.

 _[I have an idea,]_ ProtoMan told him. Chaud kept still, not letting on that he'd heard anything. _[Download a Time Bomb and put it directly behind him. Charge at him, catch him off-guard, then grab your past self and get away before the Time Bomb explodes. Keep TimeMan where he is.]_

 _You sure that'll work?_ Chaud asked.

 _[Almost certainly.]_

Well, that'd have to do. He silently followed through with ProtoMan's plan, managing to materialise the Time Bomb exactly where he needed it to go, and then crouched.

"Are you about to surrender?" TimeMan asked him smugly.

Not in a million years.

He kicked off at speed, lunging at TimeMan, who looked thoroughly shocked. But instead of going for TimeMan, Chaud went straight for his past self. He didn't have the time to be careful or gentle, so all he could do was grab his past self roughly and jump as far away as he could, hauling him along for the ride.

TimeMan looked completely bemused, until he heard the timer of the Time Bomb. He turned around too late and got a face-full of the blast.

Chaud landed on his feet, dumped his past self behind him, and quickly downloaded a Barrier to protect both of them from the Time Bomb's explosion. He was pretty sure he'd seen Ms. Mari and Higsby getting the others to safety, so he probably didn't need to worry about them.

When the blast cleared up, Chaud got a good look at the street.

It was practically in ruins. Whatever damage TimeMan had done before was nothing in comparison to this - it was as though someone had taken a construction machine to the ground for the sole purpose of ripping everything up. Bits of pavement and road and bricks littered the ground, along with several broken cars, more than one of them entirely upside-down and shattered beyond repair.

But of TimeMan, there was no sign.

 _[That went well,]_ ProtoMan said brightly.

"Your definition of 'well' is in an entirely separate universe to mine," Chaud replied. "The entire street's been wrecked!"

 _[The good news is, no one died. That we know of.]_

"Yeah, that's very comforting."

He spotted Lan and the others carefully picking their way out of the remains of a shop that had probably sold clothes, but it was hard to tell since it was half-buried in rubble.

At least they were safe. And speaking of safe . . .

Chaud glanced over his shoulder at his past self.

He was staring at Chaud with wide eyes, completely at a loss for words.

"Um," Chaud said awkwardly, "hi?"

 **OOOOOO**

The contents of this chapter is basically 'Chaud battles TimeMan and then destroys an entire street'.

By the way, you know that Time Bomb? I use one in my _Battle Network 5_ game, and it's by far one of my favourite battle chips because it hits every single panel that the enemy has - it's amazing to use during Liberation Missions.

There's also something else that I recently managed to get a hold of in that same game, the Death Phoenix battle chip. It. Is. Amazing. I LOVE IT. I can't wait to use it in the next Liberation Mission, I'll be able to murder every enemy on the battlefield if I can get it to show up in the three turns.

But anyway, who enjoyed Chaud going _War Games_ on TimeMan and that street? I told you all I'd be writing some destruction because of _Fairy Tail_ , and this is the result!

Gotta love chaos.

Read and review!


	33. TimeMan, Part 4

I actually decided to re-write this entire chapter because the whole thing just suddenly didn't make any sense to me.

Mainly because - and this isn't spoilers since it no longer exists in canon - the entire group was literally sitting in that fancy-ass restaurant where Yai had booked a room, and Chaud had casually sort of 'stolen' it (even though he was sort of within his rights and Yai was early for her thing, but he was a dick about it so it sort of cancelled out I guess?), with future Chaud still in full Cross Fusion and this all taking place hardly an hour after he'd blown up an entire street with that Time Bomb.

I'm scrapping that and I'm writing something else entirely, though I'm gonna keep some of the content intact because I kinda need it like that.

So, let's get on with this!

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Chaud and his past self stared at one another in silence - Chaud awkward, and his past self shocked. After a few moments, Lan and the others finally made their way over the debris and stood in the only space that hadn't been blown up by Chaud's Time Bomb on account of the Barrier he'd downloaded in time.

"What just happened?" Lan demanded, half-panicked. He was staring at Chaud and Chaud's past self with wide eyes. So was everyone else. "What's going on?" Lan added.

"This is a movie scene and you all played your parts very well, thank you," Chaud said. "Very authentic reactions - which is why we didn't tell you this would be happening, all for the sake of a natural performance! And, as I said, you all did really well. We're gonna make a great movie, please watch it when it's out."

 _[Why?]_ ProtoMan asked flatly.

 _You got any better ideas?_ Chaud hissed back. ProtoMan just sighed.

"No way was that a movie scene," Yai snapped, stepping forward fearlessly. Chaud was actually sort of impressed - Cross Fusion didn't exist at the moment (aside from one glaringly-obvious exception) and she, along with everyone else, had just witnessed what was probably the most brutal fight they'd ever seen between Navis, in the real world to boot, and he was still a Navi right now.

Well, he said 'Navi', but that term only loosely applied to him and didn't apply to TimeMan at all.

"No, you're right, it was a mass-hallucination," Chaud agreed. "Sorry for the confusion, you'll all wake up in a while, and you won't remember a thing, so don't worry."

"That's not true either," Maylu spoke up, crossing her arms.

"Fine, I'll tell you the truth - I'm a superhero from a different planet and that was my arch-enemy," Chaud said.

"That's even _less_ true!" Tory exclaimed.

 _[Please just tell them the truth,]_ ProtoMan groaned, before Chaud could come up with another lie. _[It is painful to listen to this.]_

 _Thanks for the vote of confidence,_ Chaud snorted.

"I'm from the future," he said, and he pointed at his past self. "I'm actually his future self."

"Sure you are," Lan said flatly. "Now tell us the truth."

"That _was_ the truth!" Chaud cried.

 _[Now do you see what comes of telling nothing but lies?]_

"You're not helping!" he shouted, clutching at his head.

The group around him was now giving him very strange looks - the adults, Ms. Mari and Higsby, even looked like they were considering dragging the younger lot away from him because of his apparent insanity.

He was confused as to why they were reacting to him like that, until he remembered that no one else could hear ProtoMan talking, and he'd already marked himself as nuts with everything that had just happened. This was a very bad day for him indeed.

He took his hands off his head and sighed. He wasn't sure if this would work, but he closed his eyes and Crossed Out like he normally would.

He heard gasps of shock and opened his eyes, and was smugly satisfied when he caught his PET. ProtoMan appeared on his shoulder and gave him a disapproving frown, as if he knew exactly what Chaud was thinking - which he sort of did, actually, so that frown was probably completely justified.

"Believe me now?" Chaud asked smugly.

"But how-?" Lan began, and then he stopped talking as apparently he was too shocked to continue. He kept glancing between Chaud and Chaud's past self as if he could figure out what was going on by comparing the two of them.

"That guy that I was fighting, his name is TimeMan," Chaud explained. "You can probably guess what happened just from his name, actually, but long story short - something stupid happened and I got dumped here, in the past, and TimeMan sort of almost killed you guys, which I apologise for since he's looking for us." He gestured to himself and ProtoMan.

"Wait, hold on, is he-" Maylu broke off, gaping at ProtoMan. "He's in the real world!"

"Actually, I am not - this is a hologram," ProtoMan informed her. "I am surprised you did not say that of TimeMan, because he is a being of the cyberworld, although he is not a Navi. The same also applies for what Chaud and I were a moment ago, when he was lying himself into a corner."

"You're never gonna let me forget this, are you?" Chaud sighed.

"No," ProtoMan replied bluntly. "Out of all the lies you could have picked, you went with the most ridiculous you could come up with. A movie scene? Mass-hallucination? _Alien superhero_? If we had not been Cross Fused I would have assumed you had been drugged in some way."

"Aliens Navis exist!" Chaud protested. "How do we know alien _superheroes_ don't either, huh?"

"Yes, allow me to ask to Duo if he came across any other idiot heroes such as yourself when he next pays a visit to this planet," ProtoMan dryly responded.

"I didn't hear you come up with anything!" Chaud snapped. "You're just as useless as I am!"

"Charming, truly charming."

Meanwhile, the group were just gaping at Chaud and ProtoMan, completely stunned.

"How are you him?" Lan demanded, successfully breaking up the argument between Chaud and ProtoMan. He pointed at Chaud's past self. "Neither of you act like Chaud or ProtoMan!"

"What part of 'future' did you not get?" Chaud said irritably. "At least we're not in Beyondard, that'd be almost impossible to fix. I think."

"What's Beyondard?" Maylu asked.

"It's an alternate universe," Chaud replied.

"Alternate universe?" Dex scoffed. "Yeah, right. Next thing you'll tell us you actually _are_ a superhero."

"Well, Cross Fusion basically fuses me and ProtoMan, so I guess I am sort of a superhero, in a way," Chaud said. "But if you want weird, the Duo that ProtoMan mentioned? He briefly erased thirty years of this planet's history. And this isn't even the first time that we've time-travelled, just the longest time we've spent in the past."

"We lead very strange lives," ProtoMan added with a sagely nod.

The group stared at them again. They really did seem to enjoy staring at Chaud and ProtoMan. He couldn't blame them, he was only briefly summarising what had happened to him and his friends, and it certainly would sound completely insane to anyone who didn't know the details. It sounded insane to him, and he'd lived it.

"Does anyone know which direction the research facility is in?" Chaud asked, moving on from the previous topic.

"Do you mean SciLab?" Higsby spoke up, frowning at him.

"No, not that, the research facility that's looking into- uh. ProtoMan, what were they doing there?"

"I believe it was something to do with materialising cyberspace data without the use of a dimensional area or even a core, neither of which exist yet, so I can only assume that the research facility does not exist yet either, or that the facility is currently empty, which actually makes it completely useless to us."

Chaud stared at him for a full ten seconds, and then groaned loudly.

"So we've just wasted half a day looking for a place that doesn't exist yet," he sighed in frustration. "Typical. Just typical. My luck is officially the worst."

"I am certain there are some who have worse luck, but yes, currently your luck is absolutely terrible," ProtoMan agreed.

"So, what now? Find TimeMan and make him take us back?" Chaud suggested.

"Assuming we did not delete him, and assuming we can even find him if we did not, and also assuming that we can make him take us back," ProtoMan said. "A very sound plan, one that hinges on the cooperation of a Darkloid who wants nothing more than to see both of us dead."

"You're a regular ray of sunshine, you know that?"

"I try."

"Are you sure you're me?" Chaud's past self asked, looking at Chaud like he was some sort of freak. "So far all I've heard from you is pure insanity, and I know for a fact that I'm not insane."

"Oh, no, you're insane, you're just really good at hiding it," Chaud told him, shrugging carelessly. "Also, secret tunnels."

His past self stared at him. He obviously believed Chaud now.

"I'm gonna turn into you?" he whispered, looking horrified at the thought.

"Wait, what secret tunnels? What's he talking about?" Lan asked Chaud's past self.

"None of your business," Chaud's past self snapped. "I'm not gonna deal with this insanity anymore. I'm leaving."

"TimeMan might come after you again," Chaud said, stopping him in his tracks.

"Do you really wish to become the victim of TimeMan's murderous rampage?" ProtoMan asked him. "You and my Chaud are essentially the same person, and TimeMan may mistake you for him again. He may even kill you just for the sake of it. It would be wise to not be alone for a while, at least until we can fix this mess-"

"A NetNavi has no place to tell a human what they can or can't do," Chaud's past self snapped.

"Don't talk to him like that!" Chaud exclaimed angrily, while ProtoMan fell into a hurt silence.

"Oh, come on," Chaud's past self sighed, shaking his head. "You're one of those idiots who think Navis actually have real emotions, like people? Don't tell me I've become a moron as well as a crazy person. NetNavis are _data_ , you idiot, any emotions they seem to have are only _programmed into them_. They're not people, you know."

It was one thing to know how he used to be, and it was another thing entirely to actually hear himself saying things like this. The worst thing about this was that he knew exactly what had caused his past self to say such things about Navis, about ProtoMan. But that didn't make any better. It just made it worse.

"I . . ." He felt like he was gonna throw up, and he swallowed back the bile rising in his throat, then looked at ProtoMan. "I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry." His voice cracked and he had to actively fight back the tears.

"You were never at fault," ProtoMan told him gently.

Chaud shook his head. That wasn't true at all, but he didn't say that, because ProtoMan would just insist otherwise until Chaud would finally agree. Better to keep quiet.

"You're . . . a lot different to him," Lan said, looking at Chaud with a considering expression on his face. "You seem nicer, somehow."

And immediately his sadness turned into anger.

"Somehow? Oh, the great Lan has spoken, I am _somehow_ nicer than this monster that stands before me!" Chaud cried, with heavy sarcasm. "As if that's difficult."

"Chaud, please," ProtoMan hissed, while everyone else - his past self included - gave him shocked looks again.

"I'm not gonna be nice to someone who told you to shut up!" Chaud replied. He sighed and shook his head. "Whatever. We're wasting time here, anyway. We need to find TimeMan, so do we have any ideas as to where he might be?"

"Based on past experience, he is most likely going to be somewhere related to time," ProtoMan said, going with the change of topic. But his expression told Chaud that there would be words about this later on.

"Related to- how do you figure that?"

"Because the villains we face often seem to enjoy messing around with networks that have a theme to them," ProtoMan deadpanned. "The Darkloid FlashMan was messing around with the lighting system in the shopping district. BubbleMan, when Lan and MegaMan first met him, was trying to mess with the waterworks. The Darkloid DesertMan was found in a sand-based area. And so on."

"One good thing about these Darkloid's, they're at least fairly predictable," Chaud muttered, shaking his head again. "Okay, so, time-related places in the city. How much have we narrowed our search area?"

"To just about half the city."

Chaud stared at him.

ProtoMan shrugged. "Give or take a few clock shops," he added.

"I want to hit you," Chaud informed him.

"Please don't."

 **OOOOOO**

YIKES THIS TOOK FOREVER TO FINISH.

Holy shit I thought I'd never get it done . . . agh. I got it done, who cares, enjoy this weirdness!

Oh, and in case anyone's wondering, it was about halfway through this chapter that I paused _TimeMan_ in order to write the Halloween special, _Nightmare_. It's kinda getting difficult to figure out how to write for this 'part', since I'm constantly changing my ideas because it's hard to figure out how present-Chaud would act around the past group.

To which I've decided he's gonna be as weird as hell, as you can see above.

He's also not very happy with his past opinion of 'Navis don't have emotions'. Knowing what you guys do from that _Unbreakable Bond_ 'part', you can probably guess why he was moments from vomiting out his breakfast or something.

Next time, we'll be getting into the search for TimeMan.

Read and review!


	34. TimeMan, Part 5

I probably should've responded to reviews in the last chapter's AN, but there we go.

Okay, review responses . . .

Mari - thanks for answering my questionnaire! I know I've already said it but I can't thank you enough, so once again, thank you. And I've also watched a short walkthrough (I say short, it was forty goddamn minutes, so maybe not that short) of _P.T_ , so I guess that game also sort of inspired the _Nightmare_ special. _P.T_ was terrifying, lemme tell you.

And to blazenight01 - in my opinion, or headcanon I guess, VR-type stuff works in much the same way that Pulse Transmission does, except there's no real danger to the human being put into the game. So basically the human can go right into the game or whatever, and they won't be in danger of dying. There are probably games that allow Navis and operators to work together (I have a vision of an RPG similar to _Skyrim_ based on that concept), but for the purposes of creating a true survival horror game, _Nightmare_ (the game, not the 'part') was created so Navis couldn't interfere, unless it was in extreme cases such as the operator being too terrified to continue.

Anywho, I did consider switching POVs for this chapter, which is something I haven't done yet. Well, I've switched POVs for different 'parts', but I haven't switched them in the middle of a 'part' before. I even tried writing a little bit, but it felt wrong somehow, so I guess we're sticking with the theme of 'one 'part', one narrator'.

I like it like this, let's keep doing it.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Looking for TimeMan across an entire city was an impossible task to do alone, but Chaud and ProtoMan had faced more impossible odds before - however, that didn't stop the past group from wanting to help out, no matter how much either of them protested, and it wasn't long before Ms. Mari (ignoring Chaud's half-hearted attempts to stop her) decided to take it upon herself to assign 'teams' to go out and search different time-themed places within DenTech.

For whatever reason, Ms. Mari had put Chaud in the same 'team' as the past Lan and Chaud's past self. Maybe she thought that putting him and his past self together would force them to cooperate, and that Lan could act as a sort of impartial third party or whatever.

Right. Sure.

That was gonna work out so well.

Chaud had never hated someone so much, and it was ironic because that someone was himself. If it hadn't been for ProtoMan, he probably would've torn out his own throat hours ago.

"Killing him would kill you," ProtoMan told him. "That is an absolutely terrible idea, so please do not kill him. No matter how much you wish to."

"But I don't like him!"

"So you have said. That does not mean you can kill him."

"Can I at least hit him?"

"No."

"So, what, you two have swapped roles or something?" Chaud's past self interrupted, making Chaud's temper flare up again. "You know a Navi is supposed to obey their operator, not the other way around, right?"

"I listen to MegaMan just as much as he listens to me," Lan pointed out. He was, for once, the calmest of the group - and wasn't that just really weird. Lan Hikari, famous for his impulsiveness, was doing what Raika normally did whenever Chaud and the present Lan got into another argument.

"Your head's just as empty as your battle skills, of course your Navi has to tell you what to do," Chaud's past self scoffed. Lan glared at him.

"Funny how an empty head makes him more open-minded," Chaud muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"But you just-"

"I said nothing. Oh, look, we're here."

His past self scowled, but followed him into the clock shop, Lan padding along behind them with a mildly-worried expression. Probably scared that one of the two Chauds he was with was gonna go nuts and attack someone. That was very likely for Chaud, if his past self didn't shut up.

Man, he couldn't remember ever being this annoying. Now he understood why Lan and the others hadn't liked him back then.

Past Lan and Chaud's past self jacked their Navis into the shop's network, and it was only then that Chaud realised there was a problem with this.

"We can't jack in," he said, wide-eyed.

Lan and his past self glanced at him.

"What?" Lan asked. "Why not?"

Chaud held up his PET. "Because there's no cord," he explained. "It's infrared - has been since the Advanced PET. But that hasn't been invented yet."

"Actually," ProtoMan said, "that is incorrect."

"Wait, what?"

ProtoMan pointed at the PET, more specifically at the bottom, next to where the touch-pen was stored.

"In all newer versions of the PET, a jack-in cord is included in case a Navi is needed to jack in to any old networks such as these," he said. He frowned at Chaud. "I thought you knew this."

" . . . No. No, I didn't."

"What do you mean, 'old networks'?" Chaud's past self demanded. "This network is one of the newest there is."

Chaud had to fight very hard to keep a straight face.

"Not where I'm from," he said. He turned back to ProtoMan. "I honestly didn't know there was a cord for this sort of stuff. No one ever told me."

"There is one," ProtoMan confirmed. "I do not think that they had this in mind when they designed the PET with the cord still inside, though."

"Would anyone? We're the only people this weirdness happens to. If this keeps up, we'll need to start requesting special PETs that account for alien invasions, the world randomly exploding, or another time-travel adventure. Or maybe another alternate universe."

"If one Beyondard exists, it is entirely possible that many more also exist," ProtoMan agreed. "But you can jack in, so there's no need to worry about this anymore."

"Alright then."

With a bit of direction from ProtoMan, he found the cord inside the Link PET and pulled it out. He had a bit of trouble with it, since he'd gotten used to the infrared jack-in, and almost got wrapped up in the cord - but he untangled himself quickly and jacked ProtoMan into the clock shop's network.

As soon as all three Navis were in, they went off to search for any trace of TimeMan.

"You're kind of useless, aren't you?" his past self suddenly said, a few moments after their Navis had vanished.

Chaud glared at him, but his past self just shrugged.

"You almost got tangled in the cord, which you didn't even know was there until ProtoMan told you," he pointed out. "Not to mention it seems to be him who's coming up with all the plans."

"And you've got a plan of your own, huh?" Chaud growled. "If ProtoMan has a plan, then I'll listen to him. If I have a plan, then he'll listen to me. That's how it's supposed to work. Blind obedience isn't a good thing, you know."

"No," his past self agreed, "it's not. But I'm just saying, you don't exactly seem very much like me at all."

"Yeah, we said this already."

"Um, guys, can we not do this here?" Lan broke in, holding up his hands to both of them and cringing slightly. "I mean it's easy to pass you off as twins, but it's gonna be really hard if you start shouting about this kinda stuff. People'll think you're crazy."

"We are crazy," Chaud replied.

"I'm not crazy," his past self said, scowling at him.

"You're the one who needs reminding now - I know everything about you because I _am_ you. But if you wanna keep pretending that you're sane, go ahead. See how long it lasts. I can guarantee it'll come tumbling down at some point, but the longer you keep lying to yourself, the harder the fall will be."

"What, are you a psychologist now?" his past self snapped. "I'm not pretending anything!"

"He is your future self, though," Lan pointed out. "So that kinda makes him more of an expert on . . ." He trailed off as Chaud's past self turned his glare on him. "N-nevermind."

"Both of you are completely ridiculous, and I don't even know why I'm here," Chaud's past self spat. "I'm not even involved in this stupidity!"

"TimeMan's after me and ProtoMan, and like we told you, he might go after you again," Chaud reminded him. "Since you have no way to protect yourself against a Darkloid, you'll have to stick with us for now."

"That's great, but why do I have to be with you, of all people? It's pretty clear we hate each other."

"Cus I'm the only one who might actually be able to fight TimeMan on his own terms if he comes into the real world again," Chaud snapped impatiently. "If you wanna get killed that badly then go ahead, save me the trouble of doing it myself when TimeMan rips you to pieces!"

"If I die, you die too," his past self hissed.

"Fine by me," Chaud retorted.

"I leave you alone for two minutes and you've already gotten into yet another argument?" ProtoMan demanded, appearing on Chaud's shoulder. Lan and Chaud's past self started at his sudden appearance, still not used to the hologram ability, but Chaud just scowled at him.

"He won't stop being difficult!" Chaud protested. "I'm not playing nice with someone like that."

ProtoMan sighed. "And making death threats against yourself will help so well, I am certain," he said with heavy sarcasm. He shook his head. "If you cannot stop arguing, then I will have to do it for you. Download the Synchro Chip."

"What?"

"You heard me."

Chaud gave him a glare. "We don't even know if it'll work," he pointed out.

"Our half of the power block allowed us to stay in Cross Fusion even though we were nowhere near a dimensional area. TimeMan's half also allowed him to materialise without one. It therefore stands to reason that we can Cross Fuse any time we need to."

"Fine!" Chaud exclaimed.

He downloaded the Synchro Chip, fully aware of his past self and Lan watching curiously. It seemed that his past self's hatred of him didn't extend so far as to not be curious about watching him transform into the hybrid form that was Cross Fusion, but Chaud couldn't care less what his past self did at this point.

Several moments later, he was back in Cross Fusion, and everything was once again black and white.

 _[Allow me,]_ ProtoMan said.

Chaud had the strange sensation of being gently pulled away. ProtoMan had taken control of Cross Fusion this time, and now Chaud was the passenger while ProtoMan was the driver.

"This is curious," ProtoMan muttered.

 _[Yeah, no kidding,]_ Chaud replied. _[Have we ever done this before?]_

"Once, when you were too injured to take control. But never like this," ProtoMan replied.

"What happened to your voice?" Lan asked. "It's deeper, now."

"That is because we have swapped places," ProtoMan explained. "It is not Chaud that you speak to, it is me, ProtoMan."

"That's . . . weird, but cool."

"People are staring," Chaud's past self said. "That light was pretty obvious. Why didn't you just do that Fusion thing outside or something?"

 _[Oh, shut up!]_ Chaud snapped at him, forgetting that only ProtoMan could hear him right now. _[It's not like we didn't get stared at before. Who cares what you think, anyway? You're not the one Cross Fusing!]_

"Chaud, please, calm yourself," ProtoMan sighed. "He cannot hear you anyway."

 _[Tell him he's a-]_

"I will not."

 _[ProtoMan-]_

"Hush."

 _[ . . . Did you just-]_

" _Hush_."

"This is really weird," Lan muttered, watching ProtoMan. "I know there's probably a conversation going on there, but I can only hear half of it."

"Yes, that is indeed one drawback of Cross Fusion," ProtoMan agreed. "Whoever is not in control cannot be heard by anyone who is not also in Cross Fusion."

"So he can't insult me anymore?" Chaud's past self guessed, satisfied. "Good, he was annoying anyway."

 _[That's it, I'm taking back control and I'm sticking a Proto Sword right up his-]_

 _If you finish that sentence I will force you into sleep mode,_ ProtoMan threatened.

 _[I'm not a Navi, you can't do that.]_

 _Watch me._

He could feel ProtoMan's frustration - and his confusion. He wanted to know why Chaud was acting like this, and to his own past self no less. But Chaud wasn't entirely sure why either. He knew why his past self was like this, and that should've made him more sympathetic or less hostile, but for some reason every time his past self opened his mouth, all Chaud wanted to do was hit him. And ProtoMan was having to act as a physical barrier between them. Chaud couldn't help but feel ashamed of himself.

Some of ProtoMan's frustration cooled down suddenly.

 _Chaud, it's alright,_ ProtoMan said quietly. _I feel your own confusion. You have no need to apologise to me._

Before Chaud could reply, they were interrupted by the clock shop's manager, who tapped ProtoMan on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Er, excuse me . . ." the manager said, looking apologetic but stern. "You're disturbing the other customers. I have to ask you to leave. And I'd also like to ask what that light was a minute ago?"

 _[Tell him it's a movie scene!]_ Chaud exclaimed.

 _No._

"What light?" ProtoMan asked, much to the shock of past Lan and Chaud's past self.

The manager stared at him. "What do you mean, 'what light'?" he asked incredulously. "I saw it myself - it came from here. From you, actually."

"There was no light," ProtoMan said incredulously. "I think you may be ill. You seem to be imagining things."

"But I could have sworn . . ."

"I must apologise, but I sincerely do not know what you're talking about," ProtoMan went on respectfully.

"I think you're lying to me," the manager said, crossing his arms.

"Well, that depends on how you define lying," ProtoMan pointed out.

The manager raised an eyebrow. "Well, I define it as not telling the truth," he said. "How do you define it?"

"Reclining your body in a horizontal position," ProtoMan replied.

Chaud was glad that no one except ProtoMan could hear him right now, because he had never laughed so hard in his entire life.

The manager was utterly speechless. Lan and Chaud's past self were gaping at ProtoMan, similarly speechless.

After a few moments of pure silence, the manager sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Get out of my shop," he said.

"Absolutely, just give us ten minutes and we will leave without a fuss," ProtoMan told him.

"Fine, fine, as long as you get out," the manager sighed. He left without another word to them, muttering under his breath.

ProtoMan watched him leave, and then turned back to Lan and Chaud's past self.

"What," Lan demanded, after finding his voice, "was that?"

"That was what Chaud attempted to do earlier, but more successful," ProtoMan replied.

Chaud was mildly offended, but he was still too busy laughing to respond.

 **OOOOOO**

So now we have that absolute gem that ProtoMan gave us at the end there.

Man, I love writing sassy ProtoMan . . . Wait, have I said that before? Oh, who gives a shit, it's true and I'm pretty sure you guys also love watching ProtoMan sass every living thing that can be sassed.

And have some angry Chaud being babysat by an exasperated ProtoMan. Literally the only reason that he hasn't killed his past self yet is because he's got ProtoMan going 'no. Stop that. Bad Chaud' whenever he gets into an argument with his past self.

But we have ProtoMan annoying the shop manager into letting them stay for a little longer, and Chaud getting dumped into Navi-role during Cross Fusion because it's the only way that ProtoMan can stop him from physically attacking his past self. Man, I love this 'part', it's so much bloody fun to write!

Read and review!


	35. TimeMan, Part 6

With six chapters to its name currently, _TimeMan_ is the longest 'part' we've had so far in this entire fic!

It's probably one of the more fun ones to write cus it doesn't really take itself too seriously despite the plot being somewhat serious, but it's also one of the most difficult for me to write . . . hmm . . . I guess it evens out, then. As long as I can finish this, and as long as I'm happy with the result - and you guys are too, of course - it'll be fine.

By the way, in case anyone's interested, in my _Skyrim_ game I've recently found this awesome steampunk-style ruin. It's called . . . Multzf? Mzulft? I think it's the latter. Whichever one it is, I love those ruins. Of course, with all of my looting trips back and forth to get all the shit from it so I can sell it all, I'm gonna end up hating it. But it's at least way cooler than the boring Nord crypts that I keep finding. These Dwemer really built some awesome shit, lemme tell you. And from what I understand, Mzulft isn't the only Dwemer ruin out there. I'M GONNA FIND 'EM ALL.

Anywho, chapter time.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Even after they left the clock shop (after determining that TimeMan wasn't hiding there, of course), ProtoMan still refused to Cross Out. His reasoning was that Chaud would probably get into another argument with his past self or maybe attempt to attack him, so staying in Cross Fusion was one way of stopping either of those things from happening.

Chaud just thought that he was enjoying walking around in the real world without a dimensional area or CopyBot.

"That too," ProtoMan admitted, "but it is mostly to stop you from making a huge mistake."

 _[Glad you've got so much faith in me,]_ Chaud grumbled.

"Can't you have this half-conversation in your head?" Chaud's past self demanded. "It's weird, hearing you talking to yourself."

"I am not insane, you are fully aware of this," ProtoMan reminded him. "Though what surprises me is that you find speaking with one who is technically your own Navi, in the real world, less strange than speaking with your future self."

"My future self wants to kill me, it's not much of a contest," Chaud's past self huffed.

"That is true," ProtoMan admitted.

"Has Chaud just . . . gone off the deep end, in the future?" Lan asked tentatively. "I mean, he blew up an entire street after trying to delete that Navi - sorry, Darkloid - and now he's trying to attack himself."

 _[He does remember I can still hear him, right?]_ Chaud sighed.

"I am the one who suggested he plant the Time Bomb. Also, Chaud wishes to remind you that he can hear you," ProtoMan told Lan, who paled. "Do not worry, he harbours no desire to attack you - unless you start talking like his past self, that is."

"MegaMan's not a tool or a slave, he's my best friend, and I would _never_ treat him as anything less," Lan said firmly.

 _[Which is entirely true,]_ Chaud noted, thinking about events which were, for these guys, in the not-so-distant future. No matter what happened, no matter how bad things got or how much the two of them argued, Lan and MegaMan were always together.

"Then you have nothing to fear from us," ProtoMan assured Lan. You could hear the smile in his voice, which came from their shared memories.

"And what about me?" Chaud's past self asked, clearly expecting the same treatment from his own Navi.

"If Chaud gains control," ProtoMan said, "I would advise that you run."

Chaud's past self stared at him.

"Though it may be entirely unhelpful because he would catch you with little to no effort, so perhaps running is not the best idea," ProtoMan went on, unaware that it wasn't helping. "It may be a matter of how painful he makes your death . . ."

 _[Very,]_ Chaud said.

"He says it will be very painful."

"Can I leave now?" Chaud's past self asked, now visibly nervous.

"TimeMan-"

"At this point, that Darkloid guy sounds a lot less terrifying than you two."

ProtoMan considered that for a moment, and then he nodded.

"Fair point," he conceded. "But please, do not fear - once this is over, you will no longer be in danger, either from TimeMan or my Chaud."

"That's so helpful," Chaud's past self muttered.

Lan frowned at him. "Are you actually scared of them?" he asked incredulously.

"How would you feel if your future self blasted apart an entire street and then decided he hated your very existence?"

" . . . I would be sorta scared, yeah," Lan agreed, awkwardly. "But the only reason he doesn't like you is because of how you see Navis, and how you're treating ProtoMan like a slave or whatever."

"I don't treat him like a slave!"

 _[Which is true, I think,]_ Chaud murmured. _[I may not have thought of you as a person back then, but I don't think I ever actually treated you like a slave. Not to the extent that Lan and the others seem to think I did, anyway.]_

 _You did not,_ ProtoMan assured him. _If anything, your treatment of me was tame in comparison to how some operators behave towards their Navis. You may not have regarded me as having true emotions, but you never consciously attempted to harm me._

 _[I did hurt you emotionally, though . . .]_

 _I already forgave you for it. And it was not your fault, I have said this._

Chaud just kept quiet. He knew ProtoMan could feel his shame, but nothing could change the past - not even them being here. The only thing he could do was hope that something like this never happened again, because those months that Chaud had thought of ProtoMan as nothing more than a bunch of pixels were some of the loneliest in his entire life. He didn't want to go through that again, for ProtoMan's sake as well as his own.

But he was still confused - why was he reacting so . . . violently, every time his past self so much as annoyed him? This wasn't like him at all, and the same was true of ProtoMan, who was more easily annoyed than usual.

Maybe it was the stress of being dumped into a situation like this.

But whatever it was, their emotions had been all over the place, had been ever since they'd woken up in that alley.

ProtoMan stopped walking so suddenly that Lan and Chaud's past self almost didn't register it until they realised he was no longer there.

"What's wrong?" Lan asked.

"I just figured out why we're like this," ProtoMan said, and he sounded almost dazed. "It's the power block."

"The . . . power block?" Chaud's past self repeated, exchanging a glance with Lan. "The thing that TimeMan was after?"

 _[What does that have to do with-]_ Chaud began, but then ProtoMan shared what he'd just figured out, and he went silent out of shock.

"When TimeMan activated the power block, he used his own energy to do so," ProtoMan explained verbally, for the benefit of the past humans. "He poured Darkloid energy into it, and the power block also reacted to our own power and was then converted into digital data. We absorbed one half, TimeMan the other. And there was Darkloid energy inside it, along with energy from our Cross Fusion. The Cross Fusion energy is likely what allows us to Cross Fuse without a dimensional area and why TimeMan can materialise himself, while the Darkloid energy is most likely the reason why Chaud is so argumentative, and why I am so easily annoyed."

 _[But if there's Darkloid energy inside this thing, then does that mean . . .]_

An image of the horrible creature that they'd become when Chaud had Cross Fused with Dark ProtoMan flashed through his mind, and he would have recoiled if he'd had a body at the moment. He settled for a terrified whimper.

 _There is not enough energy to turn us into that,_ ProtoMan said gently, knowing full well how Chaud felt about that monster and being just as terrified of it himself.

Out loud, he spoke to the past humans. "This is not how we normally are, in simple terms," he said. "We are acting crazier than we should be because of TimeMan's Darkloid energy."

"Crazier than you should be?" Chaud's past self repeated.

"Yes, I admit that we are usually somewhat crazy, but looking back at some of the things we've been through, one would need to be a little crazy in order to come out of it all. But at least now we have an explanation for this . . ."

"Question," Lan spoke up, raising a hand. "Chaud - your Chaud - was human when he first started arguing with him." He pointed at past Chaud. "So how come this Darkloid energy thing explains the future Chaud being so angry?"

"Yes, he was human, but we had also been in Cross Fusion long enough for some of the Darkloid energy to transfer itself to his human body. Whatever emotions he was feeling at the time, whether they were anger or anything else, were amplified by that energy. And his past self just happened to be the object of his anger."

 _[And you keep getting annoyed at me, so I'm the object of your anger,]_ Chaud murmured. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

 _Once this is over, I will apologise profoundly,_ ProtoMan said.

There wasn't really any need to, but ProtoMan always had to apologise even for the smallest of mistakes. It was probably better to just let him do that rather than argue with him about it.

ProtoMan shook his head. "I apologise for the delay, the realisation just shocked me," he said to the past two. "We will continue our search for TimeMan."

Lan nodded. "Yeah," he agreed. "Do you think any of the others have found him?"

 _[If they have, we'd better hope TimeMan didn't materialise himself,]_ Chaud muttered.

 _Let's just hope we are the ones to find him,_ ProtoMan replied.

 **OOOOOO**

OH SHIT SON, THE DARK AURA REARS ITS UGLY HEAD ONCE AGAIN.

But don't worry - like ProtoMan said, there's not enough of the Darkloid energy to turn Chaud and ProtoMan into that monster they became when Chaud forced a Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan. But, unfortunately, there's more than enough of it to affect them directly by giving them shorter fuses than usual.

Basically, they're channelling their manga-selves. And while the reason behind it isn't exactly anything to laugh at, the results are bloody hilarious.

But moving on, I have something I wanna inform you all about!

Cin's written a one-shot thing, and she's posted onto her Tumblr account. In case you forgot, her Tumblr is cinnamononions. The one-shot is called _Injured_. I don't wanna spoil it too much because I really want you guys to read it for yourselves, but basically, Chaud gets injured (big surprise, the title kinda gives that away) and the one-shot basically shows you the aftermath. It's under the tag 'fanfic'.

I'm just telling you guys this because it's really good, and also I think maybe you'd like to read something from the person who sort of helped me co-write this weirdness that I call _System Error_.

Read and review!


	36. TimeMan, Part 7

Did anybody read Cin's _Injured_ story? Lemme know what you think of it, if you have, and I can pass your things onto Cin herself.

Anyway, onto the chapter.

I've decided that this chapter and the next one are going to be the last chapters of _TimeMan_ , because if I keep going the way I am now, I'll end up with half of _System Error_ being dedicated almost entirely to _TimeMan_ , which is something I don't want since this isn't supposed to be a proper fic, just a collection of one-shots and various headcanons.

That being said, I'm somewhat proud of the fact that I've managed to make this into the longest-running 'part' we have so far. I guess maybe it's the plot?

But yeah, that's basically all. And if anyone's wondering why it's taking me so long to write this, it's because I'm addicted to _Skyrim_ and I LOVE PLAYING IT. HOLY SHIT IT'S THE BEST GAME EVER. I've said it before (or some variation, maybe), but it's true. I can do whatever I want on that game. Only problem is the Nords are racist as fuck, but I can just kill whoever I don't like so it's all good.

Moving on.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

They found TimeMan first. Of course they did.

And like ProtoMan had said, he was hiding in a time-themed place - a clock shop in the DenTech Shopping Mall, to be specific. Chaud had to wonder exactly why all of these criminals had a thing for hiding in the most obvious places imaginable. It honestly felt like he was playing a game, where the bosses were found in places that fit their themes or designs.

But whatever the reason behind it, it allowed them to find TimeMan.

Fortunately, Chaud and ProtoMan were already in Cross Fusion. Unfortunately, they still had past Lan and past Chaud with them, neither of whom could Cross Fuse and were in constant danger of dying horribly at the hands of a sadistic time-travelling Darkloid.

 _Or us,_ ProtoMan reminded Chaud, as he jumped out of the way of one of TimeMan's blasts and landed on the fountain that was the centrepiece of the DenTech Shopping Mall's ground-floor atrium.

It probably wouldn't be the centrepiece for much longer, Chaud thought, as the fountain began glowing with TimeMan's energy blast. ProtoMan activated Jet Vernier and rocketed out of the way, touching down on the floor above them in the atrium while the fountain below them exploded into a million bits of stone and water.

"I didn't know you could fly," Lan commented, staring wide-eyed at ProtoMan while he tried to recover his breath.

Chaud's past self was busy keeping an eye out for TimeMan, but he was stealing surprised glances at ProtoMan as well.

"It is called Jet Vernier," ProtoMan explained. "A feature that comes exclusively with the Link PET, and even then only Chaud's, Lan's and Raika's."

"Who's Raika?"

ProtoMan ignored the question and turned around to face the atrium again. TimeMan had vanished out of sight, but that didn't mean he wasn't anywhere near them.

The past several minutes had been spent trying to evacuate the civilians in the shopping mall. Lan and Chaud's past self had done their best, working together somewhat grudgingly (though ProtoMan, at Chaud's insistance, had threatened both of them with a Proto Sword, which seemed to work) while ProtoMan and Chaud tried to keep TimeMan busy. It wasn't exactly an easy job since the Darkloid could appear literally anywhere via teleportation, but he was almost single-minded in his attempts to take their half of the power block, so he mostly focused on them.

By now, they'd managed to get almost everyone out, aside from a few terrified teenagers who had been told to just hide in a safe spot until they could get out. Chaud could see them now, huddled inside one of the first-floor shops and trying to judge whether or not it was safe for them to make a run for it.

ProtoMan had told them to wait until he had TimeMan occupied, but TimeMan had vanished, so now no one was moving.

This was not a good day for anyone. Unless you were TimeMan. But he didn't count.

 _[Come on already,]_ Chaud muttered, keeping an eye out in all directions. Since he wasn't in control at the moment, he had a full 360 view of everything, while ProtoMan could only see what his eyes showed him. It was hard to describe how it was, but it was almost like a third-person view from inside his own head.

Where was TimeMan? He had better not have vanished out of the mall altogether, otherwise they'd be forced to look for him all over again. Chaud was, at this point, thoroughly sick of being here.

He just wanted to go back to his own time.

 _So do I,_ ProtoMan agreed. _But we cannot, not until we defeat TimeMan._

 _[Yeah . . . and even then, how're we sure that we're gonna come back to the same place we left?]_ Chaud wondered. _[We've changed the past so much, it's a wonder we haven't disappeared yet.]_

 _As I said previously, the timeline is less fragile than you think it is. When Duo destroyed our entire planet and thirty years of our history, the chosen thirteen did not vanish immediately. I do not know if that was Duo's doing or not, but perhaps being the ones to change history makes us immune to the effects._

 _[Isn't that the plot of basically every time-travel movie ever?]_

 _. . . Shut up._

Chaud sniggered quietly, but he went on the alert when he noticed a dark grey flicker just outside of his vision. He quickly focused on it, and ProtoMan went silent, sensing that Chaud had found something.

 _[Over there!]_ he exclaimed, showing ProtoMan with their shared mind.

ProtoMan immediately activated Jet Vernier - Lan and Chaud's past self yelped and backed away from the sudden burst of rocket-fire - and zipped up to the third floor, already activating Proto Swords on both arms.

TimeMan threw a burst of energy at them just as they came over the balcony level, and ProtoMan fended it off with one Sword. That Sword broke upon impact but it got rid of the energy, and he used the second Sword to jab at TimeMan, who floated back into the wall and had to duck to avoid a swipe at his head.

TimeMan almost teleported away, but ProtoMan managed to grab onto him at the last moment and they were dragged along as well, appearing down on the first floor of the atrium.

Chaud's vision was suddenly blurry and dizzy, and ProtoMan staggered away and fell onto his hands and knees, heaving. The remaining Proto Sword had shattered the moment they had reappeared.

 _I never want to be human,_ ProtoMan gasped silently.

 _[Okay, so, we've learnt a new thing - don't grab someone when they're teleporting.]_

 _Your input is extremely helpful._

"Hand over the power block!" TimeMan bellowed, gathering up more of his energy blasts and not giving ProtoMan any time to recover from the dizziness.

Chaud remembered just in time that they had a recovery chip, and he quickly downloaded it for ProtoMan - who probably couldn't even stand up without assistance right now. The chip gave ProtoMan enough strength to throw himself away from the twin energy blasts.

The only problem with that was that ProtoMan hadn't been able to look where he was throwing himself, and he ended up slamming into the wall nearby.

That took the breath right out of his body, and any energy that he may have had left. ProtoMan was left gasping for air on the ground while TimeMan glowered at them from several metres away, and the Darkloid began to advance on them.

 _[ProtoMan,]_ Chaud said urgently. _[ProtoMan, get up. Get up! You've gotta get up! He's coming, get up!]_

 _I can't move,_ ProtoMan said. He sounded completely drained. _I'm sorry, Chaud. I just can't . . ._

 _[Then let me!]_

Something flashed through ProtoMan's mind - a series of images, thoughts. The power block, infecting them with Darkloid energy. Cross Fusion as they were when Chaud had Fused with Dark ProtoMan. Their sheer strength even without the power block amplifying it. Chaud's hatred of his past self.

 _[I won't,]_ Chaud promised quietly, shamefully. _[I won't. I promise.]_

 _. . . Go,_ ProtoMan said weakly.

Chaud took back control - it was an odd sensation and not one he could describe with actual words, but he knew how to do it and that was all that mattered. ProtoMan took the passenger seat now, finally getting a chance to rest.

Now that he was in control, he was gasping for breath. He could suddenly understand why ProtoMan had been so weakened, this fight was draining them almost completely.

But he wasn't the one who had been fighting.

Chaud managed to force himself to stand. TimeMan actually stopped, watching him with narrowed eyes.

"You shouldn't be able to move," the Darkloid growled.

"I'm a whole new person," Chaud informed him, and he downloaded a Variable Sword and activated Jet Vernier, blasting himself directly at TimeMan so quickly that the Darkloid couldn't move out of the way in time.

Chaud slashed at TimeMan with the Variable Sword, letting loose a couple of Sonic Booms in the process (one of the Sonic Booms missed and broke a pillar a few metres away, and Chaud mentally cringed). TimeMan was too close to do anything other than dodge. If he tried to teleport again then Chaud could simply just latch onto him, but there was also the risk that it would also drain him like it had ProtoMan.

He'd have to take that risk if it did happen. For now, he could just force TimeMan to keep dodging with rapid attacks. If TimeMan was too focused on trying to dodge, then he wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to teleport - though Chaud wasn't entirely sure if he needed concentration for that ability.

Chaud was starting to push TimeMan back now. As soon as the Variable Sword expired, he downloaded a Wide Blade and a Long Blade to replace it, switching to a dual-blade attack seamlessly to not give TimeMan any room for a break. It was his turn for a relentless assault, he was getting revenge for ProtoMan.

Up above, he knew his past self and Lan were watching. They'd probably seen ProtoMan collapsing, and were wondering how he was suddenly able to stand, much less attack like this - Chaud had to wonder if they realised that he was back in control, and if they did, what his past self would do.

 _"If Chaud gains control, I would advise that you run."_

Chaud gritted his teeth and ignored it. It was just the power block, the Darkloid energy inside him, that was making him so angry. He could redirect that anger from his past self to TimeMan.

He hoped.

TimeMan snapped back to avoid Chaud's swipe with the Long Blade, and he quickly charged up another of his energy blasts on his right hand. Chaud, seeing it coming, simply dropped down when TimeMan threw it at him - and it went sailing high above.

He didn't realise it was heading straight for Lan and his past self until they both screamed, but by the time he whipped around to find them, he saw it would already be too late. By the time he could activate Jet Vernier and get halfway there, the energy blast would have blown them both to pieces. And they couldn't run, either, because that pillar Chaud had accidentally destroyed had been holding up part of the floor they were standing on, and they were trapped.

There was a flash in the corner of his eye, and when he looked around, TimeMan had vanished.

Then there was another scream from Lan and his past self, and Chaud looked back at them, expecting the worst, but was utterly shocked when he saw what had happened.

TimeMan had teleported right in front of the blast and had gotten rid of it, cancelling it out with a second blast. He removed the resulting smoke from the double explosion, and locked eyes with Chaud. He scowled.

" . . . I don't get it," Chaud admitted quietly.

ProtoMan was either too drained or too shocked to respond, but Chaud could feel his confusion.

TimeMan teleported down to him, towering over him with that scowl still in place.

"Why?" Chaud demanded, as soon as the Darkloid was in front of him.

"If they die, we all die," TimeMan spat.

"But you said-"

"I lied, you stupid child!" TimeMan shouted. "It was a bluff, to make you back down, and when it didn't work I was shocked. How could anyone be so stupid as to endanger the life of their past self? To endanger their own life by proxy?"

"Never underestimate how stupid some people can be," Chaud snapped back without thinking, and then immediately felt foolish.

TimeMan sighed in frustration. "You humans are all the same," he muttered. "You take gambles, risks, and always go through them hoping for the best. You're lucky you didn't kill yourself and everyone in that street."

"So, this means you're not the master of time?"

"No!" TimeMan roared. "But I would be, if I only had your half of the power block! My half only gives me enough power to travel through time - backwards or forwards, and even then only short jumps. Why do you think we ended up here, instead of thousands of years in the past? If I had the entire block, I could control time and remake it however I pleased. I could create a world of Darkloids, I could bring back the glory days of Master ShadeMan himself!"

"Wow," Chaud deadpanned. "Original."

"Silence, lunatic human. I travel through time, but I don't control it, and if anyone significant in this time dies - your own past self, or the idiot operator of MegaMan - then everything in the future will change as well. We're not immune to the effects, far from it. You change the past, and you'll go back to a different world than the one you left behind, but if your past self dies, you cease to exist entirely. As much as I hate to admit this, I never intended to actually kill anyone here."

"Why not just grab us and go back?" Chaud demanded. "Why'd you have to attack, and why did you vanish?"

"I was injured, because you decided to blow up everything in sight!" TimeMan snapped at him. "You're the one who attacked me!"

"Sure, play the victim," Chaud huffed. "But why didn't you just take us back anyway?"

"I only had the power for that one jump. I have enough left over to get myself back, but I would be leaving you behind. I can't leave you behind because you still have the other half of the power block, and leaving you here could change history in unspeakable ways. I can't risk it. I had to wait for you to come to me, and like an idiot, you decided to attack first and ask questions later!"

"Can you get us back if you use the full power block?" Chaud asked, ignoring TimeMan's insults.

"Yes," TimeMan growled through clenched teeth.

"Then do it."

"You're leaving?"

Chaud turned around and saw Lan and his past self making their way over. It was Lan who had spoken. The two of them had used the rubble from the explosion as a way to get down from the second floor faster, and had just came up as Chaud had told TimeMan to take them back to their own time.

" . . . Yeah," Chaud replied, after a moment of hesitation. He glanced at his past self.

Both past humans looked surprised, and judging by the small amount of fear in their expressions, they'd definitely realised it was him who was in control. Maybe it was the word he had used - he'd never heard ProtoMan say 'yeah' before - or maybe it was his voice, but now they knew.

Lan took a step to the side, almost in front of Chaud's past self. Normally that would've prompted some reaction from past Chaud, but he had taken a step backwards himself, looking at Chaud with a mixture of fear and suspicion.

"Look," Chaud began shamefully, realising that he still had both of his Blades active and quickly banishing them before anyone got the wrong idea, "I'm sorry-"

"Don't bother talking to them," TimeMan interrupted. Chaud glared at him. "They won't remember any of this anyway. Time is resilient in that it will correct itself to make sure nothing is broken."

"Then why isn't it correcting itself right now?"

"Because the thing that is changing time is still here," TimeMan replied, acting as if the answer was obvious and Chaud was an idiot to not see it. "Us, you idiotic child. A Darkloid and a hybrid freak from the future. Once we leave, everything will be back to how it should be - they'll be back in that street, playing at their silly mockery of battle, and everything you broke will be fixed."

"Mockery?" Lan repeated angrily.

"You broke stuff too!" Chaud snapped, even though it was true that most of the damage had been caused by him.

TimeMan snorted and ignored both of them.

"No one but the three of us will remember this ever happened," TimeMan said. "But I do have one condition, in order to bring us all back to our original time."

"And that is?" Chaud asked. He had a feeling he already knew what the condition would be. And sure enough, TimeMan said it.

"The power block," the Darkloid said. "I want your word - your sacred word - that you will hand over the power block as soon as we get back. It will be converted back to its original form the moment we do, and you were the one holding it when we left, so it will be once again in your hands. But my demand for our safe passage back to our own time is that you hand it over the moment we get back. I want you to swear it."

"My sacred word?" Chaud repeated distastefully.

"Yes. Swear upon whatever you hold dear. Your parents, your friends, your Navi. Whatever sentimental rubbish you humans hold sacred."

"Fine," Chaud said. "I swear upon my mother's life, I'll give the power block to you when we get back to our own time."

His past self gave him a strange look, but Chaud willed him to keep quiet.

That seemed to be enough for TimeMan. He held out his hand, palm up, and Chaud - though he really didn't want to and he'd rather drive a Proto Sword through it - placed his own hand on top of it.

"Then let us go," TimeMan said, and he began to activate both halves of the power block, which he could now access because he was in contact with Chaud.

The same light from before began to shine - there was more Darkloid energy being poured into it from TimeMan, and more of Chaud and ProtoMan's Cross Fusion energy as well, but this time he wasn't surprised by it.

Chaud glanced at past Lan and his past self.

"Bye," he said quietly, just before the light engulfed him.

 **OOOOOO**

YESSS. I didn't think I'd actually manage it, but there we go.

And we find out that TimeMan was actually bluffing back when he attacked past Chaud and the others the first time. He can travel through time and teleport and all that, but what he can't do is control time itself - so he's not safe if Chaud's past self is killed. Like he said, he was trying to bluff Chaud into backing down, but of course ProtoMan's 'throw a Time Bomb at him' plan worked beautifully, if you find pure carnage beautiful.

And this chapter is officially the longest one we've had in the entire fic, wow . . .

I'll end it before it gets longer.

Read and review!


	37. TimeMan, Part 8

YES THE FINAL CHAPTER OF _TIMEMAN_. THANK GOD. FINALLY.

Once this is over with, I can get to writing _Blind Panic_ , which everyone has probably been looking forward to. Well, I know I have, and there's that one reviewer who asked when I was gonna write the thing with the others finding out about ProtoMan being blind, so I guess that's two people?

Also technically three cus I know Cin is interested to see what I write for _Blind Panic_.

Anyway, I'll get to the chapter because I don't want it to end up as long as the previous one was.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Unlike their previous jump, Chaud didn't find himself lying in an alley somewhere. He guessed maybe that one had something to do with the fact that he'd been entirely unwilling to activate the power block and it had exploded as a result or something, but this time around, he had allowed it to happen willingly - and therefore, when he and TimeMan came back to their own time, he wasn't lying on the ground.

He was, however, back in the research facility. Or more specifically, the lab they had travelled from originally.

Lan and Raika were in the exact same spots where they'd been before - in fact, it didn't look as if they'd moved an inch. Chaud wondered just how much time had passed since they'd vanished into the past.

And just as TimeMan had said, the power block was back into its original form, and it was in Chaud's arms again. He glanced down at it curiously, wondering just how much Darkloid energy and Cross Fusion energy still remained inside it.

"I have held up my end of the deal," TimeMan said. "Now, give it to me."

Chaud glanced up at him.

"Wait," Raika said, suddenly realising what was going on even if he didn't fully understand what had happened, "no, don't!"

"Don't give it to him!" Lan cried.

Chaud lifted the power block over his head.

TimeMan realised what he was about to do a split second before it actually happened, but he was too slow to stop Chaud from throwing the block onto the ground with so much force that it broke upon impact. He stomped on the remains, making absolutely certain that it could never be used again.

"You gave your word!" TimeMan bellowed, gathering his energy in his palms. "You gave me your sacred word! You swore upon the life of your mother!"

Chaud lifted his hand and put his fist against TimeMan's chest, right over his Darkloid factor emblem.

"My mother is dead," he said flatly.

He activated a Proto Sword and it went straight through TimeMan's body.

TimeMan had a moment to give Chaud a look of pure hatred before he was deleted entirely, and then the dimensional area he had created vanished along with him. It also made Chaud, Lan and Raika automatically Cross Out, so he left standing there with his fist pressed against air.

It took Chaud a while to realise he was still standing there in silence, but it was only when Raika appeared in front of him and gently took hold of his wrist to lower his arm that he came back to his senses.

"Chaud?" Raika asked.

And suddenly he was crying.

Maybe it was everything that had happened catching up to him, maybe it was finally getting rid of the Darkloid energy and the anger had burned inside him for the past day or so, but he just couldn't stop crying - and Raika reacted with surprise at first, but then he recovered and wrapped Chaud in his arms.

There was a hand on his side, and Chaud moved his head slightly, just enough to see Lan standing there with a concerned expression. Lan cautiously held out his other hand, silently asking if it would be alright, and when Chaud shakily nodded, he hugged Chaud as well.

For a few moments he was just sandwiched between them, and his only thought was how warm it was.

When it ended he was almost sorry, but he eventually calmed down and they both let him go, though reluctantly. ProtoMan was still oddly silent - Chaud spotted MegaMan and SearchMan exchanging glances and then they both disappeared into his PET, so at least they could check up on him. Other than that, and his still-shaky emotional state, things were sort of okay now.

"You okay now?" Lan asked him, still obviously worried.

Chaud looked at him, remembering the past Lan, and wondered if he could remember anything from then. But TimeMan had said that time would correct itself as soon as they left, which meant that the past versions of everyone had probably had their memories erased to fix anything that Chaud had broken.

He was glad he was back.

"I will be," Chaud quietly answered.

Meanwhile, Raika moved away to check out the remains of the power block. He crouched down and poked at it curiously, frowning, and then stood up and looked at Chaud.

"Why did you break it?" he asked mildly, making certain that his tone of voice couldn't be mistaken for an accusation.

"Darkloid energy," Chaud explained. "TimeMan activated it by pouring his energy into it, and it reacted with the energy from my Cross Fusion too. And . . . ProtoMan and I ended up absorbing half of the power block."

"And the Darkloid energy too?" Lan asked, horrified. He, like Chaud and ProtoMan, could remember that monster from the Darkloid Fusion.

Chaud looked at the ground at his feet and let his silence be his answer.

Lan made an odd jerking motion - like he wanted to hug Chaud again but had aborted the movement halfway through.

"It wasn't enough for that," Chaud said, knowing what he was thinking. "ProtoMan's the one who figured it out - we were . . . angrier than usual. Well, I was. ProtoMan was just annoyed a lot. I kept getting into arguments with my past self, and he kept having to break us up."

"You met your past self?" Raika asked.

Chaud nodded. "I hated him," he whispered. "I . . . I wanted to kill him. I could have, if ProtoMan hadn't forced me to Cross Fuse. He took control and made sure I couldn't hurt anyone. The Darkloid energy was making me go crazy. Making us go crazy."

"So, you broke the power block because of the Darkloid energy inside it."

"Yeah. I don't know if it could've been fixed. I don't really care. I just . . . I don't wanna see that thing ever again."

"We understand, you don't need to explain yourself," Raika told him gently.

"But you fixed it, in the end!" Lan exclaimed brightly, always the type to look on the bright side. "And you deleted TimeMan, so nothing like this can happen again. Hey, so, what were we like? How did we act? You know, our past selves."

"They didn't believe me when I told them I was from the future," Chaud replied, finally smiling. "Mind you, that was probably because I lied to them about what was going on before I actually told them the truth. They only believed me when I Crossed Out and showed them my real face. My past self said I was insane."

"You more or less are," Raika said bluntly, though good-naturedly. "But don't worry, we're all somewhat insane. We'd have to be, to get through half of what we've experienced."

"That's basically what I told them."

 **OOOOOO**

And now, here we are, finally at the end of _TimeMan_! It was a long, long ride - well, it was for me anyway - but I finally got here.

Damn does it feel good. But anyway, have some crying Chaud and Raika and Lan being nice and huggy.

ProtoMan's fine by the way, he's just drained as hell. MegaMan and SearchMan are looking after him, so it's all good.

Now all I gotta do is proofread this 'part' and I can upload it for you guys to read!

Read and review!


	38. Blind Panic, Part 1

Now, time for _Blind Panic_! Man I've been waiting to write this . . .

But first - responses to reviews.

To blazenight01 - by 'the talking thing', I assume you mean what I wrote about people being unable to hear the Navis (or whoever isn't in control) when they speak unless they're also in Cross Fusion? That's actually a headcanon-type of deal, somewhat based on that one moment when Lan and MegaMan first meet BubbleMan. Basically, Lan and MegaMan are having a conversation/argument while in Cross Fusion, and BubbleMan says something like 'you're the one who's talking to yourself', which implies that he didn't hear the full conversation. Meanwhile, Chaud and ProtoMan were able to respond to both Lan and MegaMan, and all of them were in Cross Fusion, so I basically decided that only people using Cross Fusion can hear whoever isn't in control as well - to anyone else, it just sounds like the person in control is talking to themselves, if they're speaking out loud.

Mari - pfff, I live to confuse! And also terrify. Yeah, _TimeMan_ took a while to write and it ended up being, what, twice as long as I thought it'd be? So I had about eight chapters to upload at once. That's a lot of chapters, for _System Error_. Also, thank you! Your kind words make me wanna write even more! And also the fact that I managed to surprise you with a massive amount of chapters kinda makes me wanna write like eight chapters for another 'part' purely so I can confuse people. I'm weird like that, lol.

Anyway, onto the first chapter of _Blind Panic_.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

The email had arrived several minutes ago, and ProtoMan, even though he had read it and re-read it and then re-read it again, was unable to understand it.

The only thought in his head was, _why? Why me?_

" . . . ProtoMan?" Chaud asked tentatively.

"Why?" he finally spoke, echoing his thoughts. He was unable to tear his eyes away from the contents of the email. "Why did they send this to us? Why did they _choose_ us?"

"W-well . . ." Chaud went quiet for a moment. "The commissioner wants us to represent the Net Police in a battle royale tournament-"

"I know what he wants us to do," ProtoMan interrupted, something he rarely ever did. He was too shocked to worry about anything else. "But why us? Why _me_?"

"We . . . we won't be the only ones there. Lan and Raika-"

"Yes, I know. It says so in the email. It lists all of us. As usual. But why me? And why . . . why _that_?" ProtoMan gestured towards the end of the email, where the rules and restrictions were listed for the recipients to read.

He hadn't thought much about the email - aside from wondering what sort of strategies he and his teammates would be using in the battle royale - until he had read that one specific line of the restrictions. That was why he was having such a difficult time with it now.

"No Navi attachments of any kind." Chaud read the line so quietly that ProtoMan almost didn't hear him.

"I don't understand," ProtoMan said to him, finally tearing himself away from the email so he could look at Chaud. "What does this mean? Does . . . does it . . . does this include my helmet?"

" . . . You weren't created with it," Chaud said, almost cringing away from ProtoMan.

It was only then that he realised how tense he was, and how his rigid stance must look to Chaud, who had been conditioned to think 'rigidness equals anger'. ProtoMan had to force himself to relax, though it was extremely difficult given the current circumstances.

"So this restriction may include my helmet," ProtoMan summarised.

"Yeah."

"Which I am completely and utterly blind without."

"Yes."

ProtoMan had the overwhelming urge to hit something, or at least shout his frustration, and the only reason he didn't was because he didn't want to scare his operator. Chaud was already wary enough as it was. But maybe later, when he was alone, he could let out his frustrations - never in front of Chaud, though. Never.

For now, he took a deep breath and turned back to the email, re-reading it for the fourth time since they had received it.

"I have not fought blind for years," he said. "I have grown used to sight. I enjoy it."

"Maybe . . . maybe it won't count? I mean, it's a helmet, and no one's ever actually seen you without it . . ."

"You have. Our classmates also. And my creator." He wouldn't say 'your father'. That man barely qualified as a human, nevermind a father.

"No one else, though. But . . ."

ProtoMan looked back at him. Chaud was staring at his desk, like he was avoiding ProtoMan's gaze, but his eyes flickered up to briefly meet ProtoMan's - his broken, blind eyes which only worked because Chaud had given him this wonderful helmet so long ago.

"You've never said anything about this to anyone," Chaud said reluctantly, like he was afraid of angering ProtoMan by saying the wrong thing. "I didn't mention it because you didn't, but I . . . I didn't know this would be so . . ."

"It is not that I _want_ to keep it a secret," ProtoMan said. "It's just . . . I do not want anyone to look at me differently. I do not wish for them to _treat_ me any differently."

"We don't know they won't," Chaud tried to encourage him.

ProtoMan shook his head. "They would," he sighed. "Besides, I did not mention this because it never came up. What am I meant to say? _By the way, I'm an oldgen prototype Navi with an unrepairable glitch in my programming that makes me completely blind._ How am I to fit that into any conversation? Aside from my deleted siblings, I'm the only crippled Navi to exist. No one could understand."

"I do," Chaud mumbled.

ProtoMan couldn't hold back a smile. "I know you do," he said gently. "And I thank you for that. But this tournament . . . If my helmet does indeed count for the restriction, then I will be forced to fight blind once again. I . . . I can do that. I know I can. I have done it before and it is not something one forgets easily. But the others will know. I-I know I said I do not actually want to keep my blindness a secret, but . . ."

"You wanna be treated like a normal Navi," Chaud finished. "Not a glitched prototype."

" . . . Yes. It's selfish, I know, but-"

"It isn't." Now it was Chaud's turn to interrupt. "You don't want your friends to treat you like you're different, or weird. That's not selfish, ProtoMan, it's basic human nature. Or, well, basic _Navi_ nature, I guess."

ProtoMan nodded.

Silence fell between them, and during that silence, ProtoMan glanced once more at the email detailing their newest mission - to enter into the DenTech Battle Royale Tournament as a team alongside Lan, MegaMan, Raika and SearchMan to represent the Net Police.

Another line in the restrictions jumped out at him. While the human operators would be on the teams, they would not be allowed to actually operate their Navis - this was, essentially, a basic skills tournament, which meant every single Navi would be forced to fight entirely on their own. It tied in with the 'no Navi attachments of any kind' restriction, because an operator could easily turn the tide of battle in their Navi's favour by downloading battle chips or attachments.

But there was a problem with that restriction also - ProtoMan could fight blind, but he could not fight without Chaud's direction. It was . . . impossible, as far as he was aware. He had never fought solo while he was blind.

It just could not be done.

"We could refuse," Chaud suddenly said. ProtoMan glanced at him, surprised. "I . . . well, I mean, if you really don't want to do it. We could ask Misaki and PrisMan to take our place. Or Manabe and her Navi."

" . . . No," ProtoMan decided, after a moment of consideration. "People will just ask awkward questions if I refuse to take part. I could probably deal with the fallout, but you . . ."

"I can handle a few bullies."

"From school, yes. From the media, no. And, well, I do not think my pride could take it if I stepped down from something like this. I may end up regretting this, but I will do it. I just . . . have to hope that I can keep my helmet."

"If not . . . what do we do? I can't help you at all . . ."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," ProtoMan replied, though it would be more like jumping off it.

 **OOOOOO**

You can probably guess what's gonna happen just from this chapter alone, but here's what you don't know about this 'part' - I've had to put a lot of thought into what style of tournament this would be.

My own restrictions were obviously the ones that ProtoMan's so broken up about in the chapter - whatever style of tournament I went for, two of the rules had to be 'no Navi attachments of any kind' and 'operators are not allowed to assist their Navis in any way'.

Otherwise, how could the plot of _Blind Panic_ be justified? But it does make sense in context.

Basically, I went through a few ideas before deciding on a battle royale-style tournament that would be fought in teams of three. In this case, MegaMan, ProtoMan and SearchMan would be one team. I'll probably explain more about the actual tournament in the next chapter (in the narration or the ANs, whichever), but what ProtoMan means by a 'basic skills tournament' is that the Navis can't use battle chips or attachments. It's all just the Navis going at each other in teams of three with their basic weapons only.

Which kinda means MegaMan might be at a disadvantage as well, since he's only got his Mega Buster - but he isn't blind like ProtoMan, so it's not as bad.

Anyway, while I was writing this chapter, blazenight01 reviewed some more, so I'll just answer those reviews (or the ones that're showing up, cus one or two seem to have turned invisible or whatever for some reason) and then I'll end this chapter.

Blazenight01 - yeah, the Darkloids are pretty much gone by the time we get to _Beast+_ , and maybe BubbleMan is the last one, but I'm kinda taking this whole thing with new Darkloids showing up and basing it sort of on the four Darkloids that showed up during Dark MegaMan's arc. We never saw those four before, so I basically decided to headcanon that there are probably other Darkloids running around, either in hiding or just waiting for their time to shine (or get beaten down, whatever), and TimeMan decided to make his move during the events of the previous 'part'. Darkloids are basically one way for me to get Cross Fusion into the battles, because otherwise I'll end up spamming the CopyBot plot, which is something that I kinda don't wanna do. Plus they're the perfect source for angst and a good excuse to beat up the main characters, cus basically all of them are sadistic assholes (barring BubbleMan, who pretty much just shows up to occasionally annoy people. I guess he's like a neutral nuisance or something).

Pfff. Neutral nuisance. That's gotta be the most accurate description of BubbleMan ever. What do you guys think of it?

Read and review!


	39. Blind Panic, Part 2

WHO'S READY FOR ROUND TWO?

Pfff, don't worry, that doesn't actually mean anything - I just wanted to say it, and since this is the second chapter of a tournament-based 'part', well, it's the perfect excuse.

Oh, and those invisible reviews decided to show up.

Blazenight01 - time travel is kind of tricky, yeah. I wanna ask, do you think I managed to swing it with _TimeMan_? I mean, it seems perfectly sensible to me, cus the only other source of time travel we've had in this anime so far is an alien NetNavi who, as Chaud and ProtoMan said, briefly erased thirty years of the planet's history. Do you think my version of the Navi TimeMan worked?

And with that . . .

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

The DenTech Battle Royale Tourament was taking place in the DenDome, and there would be eight teams competing. Including the operators, that was a total of forty-eight people in the tournament. There would be thousands watching in the stands, and more watching from their homes on TV.

And ProtoMan might be forced to fight without his helmet in front of every single one of them.

Chaud had jacked him into the Navi Registration network - the human operators would be taking care of most of the usual paperwork, but because the tournament was to be fought by Navis only, the Navi competitors would need to register themselves separately in their own teams of three.

He met up with MegaMan and SearchMan near the entrance to the cyberworld arena after dodging his way through the Navi crowd. The arena looked fairly plain from where he was standing, but as he understood it, the entire battlefield could be changed as the producers saw fit. In an hour's time, he could be fighting in anything from a standard digital battlefield to a copied city, much like the one from war games. Not that he would be able to see any of it, if he had to give up his helmet for the tournament.

"We're up next," SearchMan informed him. He gestured towards a grey archway detector several metres away. "The registration Navis are getting the teams to register themselves and then we'll have to go through the detector there."

"What's it for?" ProtoMan asked, frowning at the detector.

"I think it's so they can make sure there's no Navi attachments," MegaMan said, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "I didn't see it happen, but one of the first teams to go through were trying to sneak in some attachments to make it easier for them to fight, and the detector went haywire on them. So it's probably for security purposes."

" . . . Right," ProtoMan muttered.

"We're supposed to declare any attachments and then hand them over to registration before we go through the detector," SearchMan added. As he finished speaking, one of the registration Navis waved them over. "Looks like it's our turn. Come on, you two."

SearchMan went through first after signing himself in on their team's slot. The detector did nothing, which presumably meant he had no attachments. ProtoMan had half-expected it to go off because of his Scope Gun, but obviously SearchMan had been created with it. He could take it off, yes, but ProtoMan had rarely ever seen him without the gun on his arm.

MegaMan went next, and predictably the detector did nothing when he walked through it. Out of all three of them, he was probably the worst off when it came to weapons - as far as ProtoMan knew, MegaMan only had his Mega Buster. He didn't have any other basic weapons.

And then it was ProtoMan's turn. He signed himself in (their team name was Team Net Police, which was . . . lacking in creativity, perhaps, but at least it wasn't as ridiculous as some of the other team names he saw on the registration logs) and turned to face the detector.

The moment of truth, then. He could have asked if his helmet would count for the restriction, but . . . he had no wish to tempt fate. If there was any chance that he could keep it, then he would have to walk through the detector with his helmet on.

He stepped through the detector.

Almost instantly, his vision went black - he was blind again. But he had no time to worry about that, because all of a sudden he was being deafened by screaming alarms on all sides, and he pressed his hands over his ears to try and block out the sound. It was made even worse now that he couldn't see anymore, somehow the alarms just seemed louder.

Just under the screaming alarms, he could hear shouting. MegaMan - and SearchMan - telling the guard Navis to shut off the alarms, and the guard Navis-

Someone grabbed his arm and he panicked, lashing out to push them away.

The alarms were cut off just as suddenly as they had started screaming, and he made out the sound of quiet groaning. Not MegaMan or SearchMan, it was a voice he hadn't heard before. A guard Navi, or one of the registration Navis perhaps. He had just attacked a civilian.

"ProtoMan." It was SearchMan. Sounded as thought he was right in front of him. "Are you alright? Can you hear me?"

"Yes," ProtoMan replied. _But I cannot see you_ , he almost added.

"Was your helmet an attachment?" Now there was MegaMan. It sounded as though he was standing behind SearchMan, or at least next to him.

"Y-yes."

"And you didn't tell anyone?" SearchMan sounded calm, but even without his sight, ProtoMan could sense his confusion.

"No. I . . . I was uncertain as to whether or not it would count," ProtoMan told them. he straightened up, taking his hands off his ears, and resisted the urge to look around. It would not help him now. "Evidently it did."

"Excuse me?"

ProtoMan just barely stopped himself from jumping. He would need to get used to this all over again. He had thought he could handle it, but now that it was actually happening . . .

"I apologise if this seems offensive in any way, but please understand that it's our job to ask these questions," a Navi whose voice he was unfamiliar with said. A guard Navi, probably. "Were you attempting to sneak that attachment into the tournament?"

"No," ProtoMan said. "I did not know if it would count, so I did not say anything about it. I apologise for this."

To say nothing of the fact that he actually needed it, but he could not say anything like that without having to explain himself. Telling his friends that he was blind was one thing, but a complete stranger? No. He couldn't.

"That's alright then," the guard Navi said. "Just had to make sure. In the future, if you're uncertain about any of the rules or restrictions, please ask the registration Navis beforehand. Your helmet will be returned to you at the end of the tournament."

ProtoMan nodded. He heard footsteps going away - the guard Navi was leaving.

"You look kinda weird without your helmet," MegaMan said. He sounded a little amused. "Smaller, somehow. And I didn't know Navi hair could look so . . . human."

"My helmet is what made my hair look like that," ProtoMan explained. "I, um, this is how I normally look without it. How I was created, I suppose."

"Your eyes are unusual," SearchMan commented.

ProtoMan almost panicked right there and then, but thankfully MegaMan came to rescue, though the shortest of their team was unaware of it.

"Says the Navi with bright red eyes," MegaMan laughed.

SearchMan chuckled. "You have a point," he admitted. "Red eyes are probably stranger than white eyes."

White eyes? Was what how his eyes looked to everyone else? He had never seen his eyes before - Chaud did not have any images of him before he had given ProtoMan his helmet, and ProtoMan had never taken it off since Chaud had given it to him. This was the first time in almost four years that he had been without it.

But Chaud had always described his eyes as blank. Perhaps this was what he meant.

"I think they're announcing the team bases," MegaMan suddenly said.

The three of them went quiet to listen to the announcement, which echoed through the entire arena cyberworld. The announcers - two humans and two Navis, to keep the tournament fair and unbiased - were now assigning the eight different teams to their bases. Despite this being a battle royale, it was also something like a capture-the-flag game, because to win each round, the teams had to 'capture' the opposing team bases. To prevent multiple teams from capturing the same base at the same time, there would be an item (likely a flag, judging by the style of play) that the teams could take, and they would have to take it back to their own base in order to capture an opposing team's base. Rankings were determined based on how many bases each team had captured and held for the entire round.

"Team Net Police - a trio of very capable Navis, including the powerful MegaMan, NetNavi of Lan Hikari, the speedy ProtoMan, NetNavi of Chaud Blaze, and the sharpshooter SearchMan, NetNavi of Raika Ro . . . Roz . . . Rozth . . . de . . ."

"Rozhdestvensky," Raika called, completely deadpan.

"Yes, thank you. Raika Rozuh . . ."

Raika sighed. "Just use my first name."

"And sharpshooter SearchMan, NetNavi of Raika!" The announcer went quiet for a moment as he attempted to remember what he was supposed to be saying. "Their team are assigned to Base F! Let's see the power of the Net Police!"

The audience - both humans and Navis alike - roared their approval. ProtoMan had a strange feeling that the cheering was very likely to change to booing very quickly.

And it would all be because of him.

 **OOOOOO**

ProtoMan's gotta fight blind _and_ without Chaud?

Oooooh shit's about to down.

But anyway, have fun with that little bit with Raika at the end there!

Funny story about that last name - it's not canon, obviously, because he's only ever referred to as Raika. We're never given a last name for him, so when I realised he would be the odd one out with the announcer thing, I kinda panicked and went to Cin for some help. She gave me a list of Russian last names for me to look through.

I originally decided on one called Dragomirov, because it sounded cool. But then Cin showed me that Rozhdestvensky name, and apparently it literally means Christmas. And I decided that was gonna be Raika's last name.

That bit with the announcer being unable to pronounce Raika's name is just for the lols. But I'm also considering putting in a scene at some point (maybe not in this 'part', but definitely at some point) where someone asks Raika what his last name even means, and he has to say, with a completely straight face, that his last name literally means Christmas.

This is somewhat based on a conversation that occured after me and Cin decided on Raika's last name.

But anyway, to prevent having about eight chapters again, I'm getting straight into the action next chapter. I can't remember if I've said it, but I'll explain the rules for the tournament in an AN at some point if I don't manage to get it into the narration.

Read and review!


	40. Blind Panic, Part 3

Before we get started with this chapter, I wanna tell you guys about something EPIC that happened while I was playing _Skyrim_. It has nothing to do with this chapter but it was so damn awesome that I wanna tell everyone about it.

Basically, I managed to kill three mammoths and two giants entirely on my own and using nothing but a fireball spell and a couple hundred arrows. It was actually a quest and I was only meant to kill the second giant, but I had to see whether or not I _could_ kill a giant, so I decided to test myself on the one that was lurking outside the cave where the second one was hiding. Unfortunately the first giant had two mammoths with it, so I decided to kill those first just in case. But goddamn, those things move like lightning when you shoot arrows at them! I ran like hell, ended up getting away from them, but I ran into a random mammoth just wandering around, so I went ahead and attacked that one first to test things out. I killed it - eventually, after I used about fifty-odd arrows and a few fireballs - and then I went back to get the other two mammoths. I had to lure one away by firing at it constantly, and eventually I killed it by staying up on a rock and shooting arrows while it tried to attack me from below, and then I killed the third mammoth in more or less the same way, although it kept fucking off back to its camp so I had to jump down a few times and almost get trampled.

Once I'd killed the mammoths, the first giant started coming after me, and that was actually even worse than the mammoths because it could follow me almost anywhere. I could still make use of the rocks - fortunately there was a weird shrine thing nearby which had a few rocks jutting out that luckily gave me the high ground and a place to hide when the giant got too close, and I ended up doing what most archers do; picking off its health bit by bit with about a hundred-odd arrows. Damn those things are hard to kill. Anyway, I finally killed it, so I went back to the cave and attacked the giant I had actually gone there for, which took . . . a while, I guess, but only because I had to duck in and out of the cave in order to dodge the fucker's attacks (the first time I encountered a giant, it killed me in one hit before I even knew what it was, so I've more or less decided that these are enemies to kill from a distance, hence my 'pick it off' strategy).

But I eventually managed to kill the second giant, so I was pretty damn happy! The only downside was the reward - since I'd killed a damn giant, I was expecting something awesome, but I only got like 150 gold. I killed a giant, I should've gotten way more than that!

And you will not believe how terrified I was while I was running away from the mammoths and giants. I was so scared I was laughing the entire time, and I'm pretty sure my mom thought I'd gone insane - until I told her what I'd been doing, and she started laughing, though she was amused rather than shit-scared.

Pfff, that turned into more of a story than I thought it would, but eh . . . Hope you guys enjoyed reading that, because I enjoyed actually doing it! Even if I was constantly near a heart attack the entire time.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

It was the third round of the DenTech Battle Royale Tournament, and the battlefield this time was a forest-based arena.

The only reason ProtoMan knew this was because the announcers would, as their job stated, announce the battlefield before it was downloaded into the arena. While it gave him no clue as to the actual layout, he could at least imagine what sort of obstacles he might encounter - for example, he was encountering an abundance of trees at the moment, not to mention roots, bushes and various other forest-type things.

Occasionally, the announcers would make comments on the competitors - and he would use those comments as a way to orient himself in whatever battlefield he happened to be playing in. That strategy was . . . slow, yes, but it was useful at least, and certainly the best hope he currently had when he was being denied his operator's assistance. The announcers could not give away Navi positions in case any of them were going for stealth, but at least it gave ProtoMan an idea of his general area.

Right now, he was apparently near Base E, home to a trio of Navis who called themselves Team Wrecker. As far as he was aware, the name was very adept for them, as all three were great big brutes (bigger than GutsMan, even). Unfortunately, unlike most giants, they happened to be intelligent and were currently Team Net Police's biggest threat in the tournament.

And they seemed to be targeting him almost exclusively.

He had to wonder if they had somehow figured out his current weakness, but then again, it was fairly obvious that he was not up to his usual standard - while MegaMan and SearchMan between them had been able to capture three flags in the first round and four in the second, ProtoMan had done little more than stumble around and attempt to avoid any fight that he could.

He had been lucky, so far. Every time Team Wrecker or any other Navis had managed to catch him, one or both of his friends had been nearby and were able to pull him out before he could get knocked out of the round.

But he'd still been next to useless, and while his friends were too nice to say anything, it was beginning to show in the plans they made for the rounds. In the first round, SearchMan had come up with a plan to divide and conquer the bases, but ProtoMan had no idea where the other bases were and had ended up walking in circles until MegaMan found him and took him back to their own base. In the second round, they had tried something similar, and it had almost worked - but ProtoMan had once again messed up, and had almost gotten knocked out before SearchMan took out his attackers with a well-aimed Scope Gun.

And now he had managed to get himself lost, and had only figured out where he was because of the announcers. The plan this time around was for SearchMan to guard their base while MegaMan captured other Navi team bases, and ProtoMan's role was to simply wander the perimeter on standby.

Yes, they would not show it, but they were getting annoyed with him. ProtoMan did not need sight to know that. But he could not tell them what was wrong, they would . . .

His thoughts were cut off abruptly when he heard footsteps.

They were light, but the heavy nature of the Navi - a member of Team Wrecker most likely - gave away their attempt to mask their approach. But for ProtoMan's acute senses, he would not have heard them coming.

It was a shame that the announcers were not allowed to give away Navi positions, but he had no need for that, as he could tell which direction the footsteps were coming from. Judging by how close they sounded, they were likely within sight (a poor phrase, given his own lack of sight) and thought they could catch him off-guard by being quiet and coming up behind him.

A heavy Navi attempting stealth . . . It was an interesting idea, but heavyset Navis were built for power and defence rather than stealth and speed.

ProtoMan didn't turn to face the Navi trying to sneak up on him. That would give it away, and he wanted to attempt to maintain some sort of control over the situation, even when he had more or less given it all up at this point. Still, he could pretend.

The Navi's footsteps were close enough now that it was almost impossible to not hear them, though the Navi didn't seem to realise how loud they were being.

The footsteps changed somehow - the Navi had shifted stances, most likely winding up for an attack - and the Navi decided to forgo any attempt at stealth.

Luckily ProtoMan heard the blow flailing through the air - such as it was in the cyberworld - before it connected, so he was able to throw himself to the side. He stumbled, almost losing his balance and falling flat on his face, and scowled at himself. Then he straightened up and tried to concentrate on where the Team Wrecker Navi was.

But during his stumble, he had lost his bearings once again, and now the heavy Navi had mysteriously gone quiet.

Almost too late did he sense the next blow coming from his left. He had no time to dodge (if he did, he would only end up on the ground), so he activated a Proto Sword and brought it up to attempt a block.

It worked, sort of. He hadn't counted on the force behind the blow and still ended up on his knees, but at least he had blocked the attack. For a moment the two of them were locked together, sword against a hammer-like weapon which seemed similar to GutsMan's Guts Hammer, and then the heavy Navi whipped away, suddenly leaving ProtoMan on his own.

This time it was a low grunt of effort that alerted ProtoMan to the next attack. He was able to roll out of the way, banishing his Proto Sword so it wouldn't get stuck in the ground or something, and managed to get himself to his hands and knees before rapid and heavy footsteps heralded the Navi's next attack.

There was no dodging or blocking this one - his attacker was too fast and ProtoMan didn't know what he was doing or where he was going to hit.

The attack hit him with enough force to throw him into a tree.

"PROTOMAN!" he heard Chaud scream.

 _Do not help me,_ he silently begged his operator. _Do not break the rules, not even for me. Please._

Thankfully Chaud seemed to be able to control himself, and ProtoMan somehow managed to get onto his feet, once again activating a Proto Sword. He could try throwing out a Sonic Boom, but he would need to get creative.

He began charging up his attack. His only hope now was that the Navi wouldn't notice, or that he could somehow manage to dodge until it was finished.

No such luck.

The Navi came at him again, thundering towards him. Most likely an attempt to finish him off for good, and neither MegaMan nor SearchMan were here to save him this time. He was entirely on his own and his only hope was charging up a Sonic Boom that might not even connect.

ProtoMan threw himself to the side moments before the Team Wrecker Navi crashed into him. He'd had his back to the tree the entire time and so the Navi, instead of hitting ProtoMan, ended up barrelling straight into that - which would hopefully stun them long enough for his own attack to charge. He heard the tree being ripped out of the ground, so he was at least certain of a few precious seconds.

And those few seconds were all he needed.

He finished charging up his attack and, not even checking where his opponent was, sliced his Proto Sword through the air. But rather than a regular slash, ProtoMan instead spun around in a full circle and threw out the Sonic Boom in every direction.

This way, he had no need to check his opponent's position because the attack would just hit everything. And if the Navi jumped, he would hear it.

There was a crash of impact and a bellow of pain, and then a loud thump. ProtoMan turned in the direction he'd heard the sounds coming from, and very cautiously began creeping over towards the Navi.

He kept his Sword held out in front of him, the tip almost touching the ground. ProtoMan paused when it tapped against something and he prodded it. It was the Navi, lying on the ground, and they were completely still.

ProtoMan narrowed his eyes and crouched down, then gently shook the Navi with his other hand. No reaction.

He'd done it. He'd actually done it.

He was so relieved - not to mention happy - that he banished his Proto Sword then and there and slumped down into a sitting position. Fighting blind was more exhausting than he recalled.

"And after a dramatic battle, ProtoMan takes down SledgeMan of Team Wrecker!" one of the human announcers cried. "He hasn't been doing very well since the tournament began. Out of all of the Navis on the battlefield, ProtoMan of Team Net Police seems to be struggling the most without his operator. Any comments on this, Chaud?"

ProtoMan lifted his head slightly.

"We were never really sure what to expect from this tournament," Chaud replied. "I didn't even know it existed until a few days ago. I guess neither of us have been performing up to our usual standard. It's all new."

"And what about your Navi's poor battle skills? He displayed much better prowess during the N1 Grand Prix almost two years ago, which - in case any of our audience doesn't know - you and ProtoMan actually won!"

"Like I said, this is new for us."

 _That's it, Chaud,_ ProtoMan thought. _Keep your cool. Just like we practised._

At least he wasn't telling them it was a movie.

Deciding he was done resting for now, ProtoMan stood up. He'd knocked out one member of Team Net Police's biggest threat, but that still left two of them to deal with - and he had no idea where either of them were.

There was no sense of direction for him, so ProtoMan just went in the opposite direction to where the Navi had fallen. How far away was Base E to Base F? Alphabetically, the letters were right next to each other, but while the layout of the bases had not changed with the battlefield, he knew the order of the bases was entirely random. The bases were, as far as he was aware, similar in design but different enough that each one was distinguishable from the others. They were also mildly impossible to locate, hence the battle royale-style tournament.

Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet changed - he was no longer walking on digital grass, but instead the hard floor of one of the bases. Was it Base F? Or Base E?

He found out a moment later when a voice that was definitely not SearchMan called out threateningly.

ProtoMan froze in place, digital heart beating against his chest. He was still too drained from the previous fight, he could not manage a second one - with another Navi of the same build and power, no less - so soon afterwards. Why did he have to stumble into the base of Team Wrecker, of _all_ bases?

Footsteps came thudding towards him. This Navi was charging in much the same way that the other one had, and ProtoMan was still frozen in place, unable to move. Why? Why could he suddenly not move his legs? What was stopping him?

The Navi's pounding footsteps were filling his ears, and suddenly ProtoMan found the will to move.

Too late, though. Just as he threw himself to the side, the Navi managed to clip him with a thick arm to his back and ProtoMan was sent sprawling through the air. He crashed into a hard surface - the bases were all set up on platforms and it was this that he had crashed into - and slumped on his side, breathless.

He heard crunching footsteps as the Navi turned themself around, and a shifting sound as they crouched and got ready to charge again.

But then he heard the familiar - and very welcome - sound of the Mega Buster charging up, and then being fired. It was somehow louder than usual, and ProtoMan flinched, covering his ears. Was MegaMan right next to him? Had he been attempting to steal Team Wrecker's base flag, and he had been forced to reveal himself because ProtoMan had stupidly stumbled into his way?

The Navi who had been protecting Base E groaned, and then went silent. A moment later, the announcers declared them knocked out as well, leaving just a single member of Team Wrecker in the arena for the third round. Luckily that last member was on the other side of the arena.

"What was _that_?"

It was MegaMan. He was right in front of ProtoMan, if the direction of his voice didn't lie.

"What . . . what was . . ." ProtoMan found himself unable to speak properly. He took his hands off his ears and pushed himself into a sitting position, staring blankly ahead.

"Look," MegaMan began reluctantly, "I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but you've been acting weird ever since the tournament began. Normally I'd try and help you out with whatever's going on, but we don't have time for this right now. You need to get it together - the reputation of the Net Police is on the line, here. You have to fight properly, or not at all."

That was harsh, coming from MegaMan of all people. But it was entirely true, and entirely justified.

And now it wasn't just the fighting that was draining him.

He lowered his head, and MegaMan sighed.

"I'm sorry, that was . . . way too rude," MegaMan said, now sounding awkward. "Come on. I'll take you back to our base. At the very least we should be able to get a few points, unless someone's stolen our flags."

That was unlikely, because SearchMan was guarding their base and so far he had not yet let a single Navi who wasn't MegaMan or ProtoMan anywhere near it.

ProtoMan allowed MegaMan to pull him up, and followed his friend silently through the forest battlefield.

 **OOOOOO**

Wooo, this chapter ended up being longer than I thought . . . Maybe it's cus of my _Skyrim_ story at the start there. But then maybe this would've ended up being long as hell either way, who knows?

But whatever, we get to see how ProtoMan fights while blind - although usually he'll have Chaud with him every step of the way. In this case it's sort of not his usual awesome skill thing, because while he's still very powerful and very fast, he also needs to stay still a lot more and concentrate on his opponent's position. That . . . is incredibily exhausting, since he can't even see what's going on, and Chaud can't help him with a single thing.

God help that poor Navi if he fights an opponent who doesn't make a sound.

Anyway, next chapter we'll get to see a confession. I think from that you can all guess what's gonna happen.

Read and review!


	41. Blind Panic, Part 4

I might end up writing five or six chapters for this part, it depends on how long I make the last chapter - normally I wanna keep _System Error_ chapters short, but if we're in the middle of a battle and there's no room for a cliffhanger, then I'm kinda gonna have to make it longer than usual. So, either there'll be five chapters or six, depending on content.

But for now, the content isn't a battle.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

They had been given an hour's break for the humans to have their lunches before starting on the last three rounds of the tournament. ProtoMan had wondered if he would be allowed his helmet back for the break at least, but when he had asked, he had only received the same answer that the guard Navi from before had given him - he would get his helmet back at the end of the tournament. Apparently they thought he might attempt to cheat with it.

Yes, a blind NetNavi who needed a special helmet in order to _see_ would use said helmet in order to _cheat_. The travesty.

But ProtoMan almost wished he could somehow cheat, if only so MegaMan and SearchMan would not be so annoyed with him. It was even worse for Chaud, because humans were often more vocal in their displeasure.

They were sitting in a cafe nearby the DenDome. Judging by where he had heard their voices, ProtoMan could sort of tell where everyone was sitting - Lan had one side of their booth to himself, while Chaud sat opposite him next to the window with Raika sitting next to him (and ProtoMan couldn't help but think this), trapping him in the booth. MegaMan and SearchMan were wandering around the table but were keeping close to their operators, MegaMan because he was trying to make Lan slow down with the usual mountain of food he was no doubt inhaling and SearchMan because he was SearchMan.

ProtoMan just sat on top of Chaud's PET and hoped no one would notice him. But of course he was, as usual, given no choice.

As far as he aware, Chaud was the only one who had yet to eat anything. He was likely feeling just as terrible as ProtoMan, and he barely had much of an appetite to start off with. The others he could tell were eating just fine, but it seemed they were both half-focused on Chaud.

The sound of Lan inhaling his food paused.

"So," Lan said, "wanna tell us what's up with you and ProtoMan?" He sounded angry but was keeping it under control, almost a first for someone of Lan's . . . over-enthusiastic personality.

Chaud didn't respond. ProtoMan, not for the first time today, wished he could see what was going on.

"Don't try to pretend nothing's wrong," Raika added, a touch gentler than Lan. "We're not trying to be mean, I promise, we just want to know if-"

"Nothing's wrong," Chaud interrupted in a quiet and almost monotone voice.

ProtoMan felt even worse than he already did. It was he who wanted to keep his blindness from their friends, and Chaud had gone along with it - and was suffering for it. ProtoMan almost wanted to confess there and then, but he just couldn't. The fear of being treated differently, like a freak to be gawped at, was too great.

"That's not true and you know it," Raika said. "ProtoMan's right, you are a terrible liar. Just tell us what's wrong and we can help."

"You can't help because there's nothing wrong."

"Right, and I'm the queen of Kingland," Lan scoffed.

"If I may," SearchMan spoke up. There was a brief pause, during which ProtoMan assumed everyone turned towards him, so he tried to face SearchMan as well - though he did not know exactly where SearchMan was. "I don't think it's Chaud we should be asking. It's not him who's struggling to fight. It's ProtoMan."

 _Thank you so much,_ ProtoMan muttered. He kept silent though, unwilling to draw attention to himself even though by now everyone was probably looking at him.

He settled for turning his head downwards and facing his feet. Honestly, he would rather they think he would not look them in the eye rather than he _could_ not.

"We just wanna help, that's all," MegaMan said imploringly. "Please, ProtoMan, just tell us what's wrong."

ProtoMan, like Chaud, decided to keep silent.

"You've been acting off ever since the tournament began," SearchMan said. "No, even before that - it started when the detector took your helmet away. Is your helmet some sort of power-booster? Does it give you better reflexes?"

"No!" Chaud snapped, suddenly coming to life. "Every bit of skill he has is entirely natural, he doesn't need any sort of boosters!"

"Calm down, he was only asking a question." Raika tried to defuse the situation, which was rapidly turning sour.

"Then what happened?" SearchMan wasn't one to be dissuaded by an outburst from Chaud, however. "Because to me it seems as though he lost all sense when his helmet was taken away. What's so important about it that he's suddenly stumbling around like a blind man?"

Chaud let out a choked squeak of surprise, and ProtoMan tensed up.

There was another pause. More of a silence, really, a considering and mildly confused silence.

It was broken by SearchMan.

" . . . ProtoMan," he said calmly, "I want to ask you some questions. I want you to answer them honestly. Do you understand?"

"W-why?" ProtoMan finally spoke. He had a feeling he did not want to know what sort of questions SearchMan was going to ask him.

"I need to test a theory I just had."

And that confirmed it.

" . . . Very well, then," ProtoMan said. "Will I require any _assistance_?"

He emphasised the word just enough for Chaud to understand. Hopefully the others would not, but he knew Chaud was more than smart enough to know what ProtoMan was really asking.

"No, you will not," SearchMan replied. He sounded slightly suspicious, but ProtoMan was hoping that he would not react beyond that. "It's just a simple test. I'm going to hold up my hand and I want you to tell me how many fingers I'm holding up."

"What kinda test is that?" Lan wondered incredulously.

SearchMan ignored him.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" SearchMan asked ProtoMan.

"Are you doing this so you can have a free playtest or something?" Chaud muttered.

"You are holding up three fingers," ProtoMan said to SearchMan.

SearchMan paused, but apparently decided there had been no cheating.

"How about now?" he asked a moment later.

"Seriously, this is too much," Chaud said. "It's stupid."

"Chaud, be quiet," Raika sighed.

"Two fingers," ProtoMan said. This was going well so far. Perhaps he would not need to reveal his biggest secret after all.

"How many fingers now?"

"We're gonna be here for hours at this rate!" Chaud exclaimed impatiently.

"Four fingers."

"And now?"

"The one time we enter a tournament together and you all start complaining about the dumbest things . . ." Chaud muttered.

"One finger."

"Alright then," SearchMan said. He sounded as though he'd made up his mind. "Raika, please keep Chaud quiet."

"Wait, what're you- mmph!?"

ProtoMan immediately went on alert.

"What are you doing?" he demanded sharply, standing up. He could guess what had happened, even without sight. "Let him go! Why are you-"

"He's been giving you hints," SearchMan broke in flatly, and ProtoMan went silent. Chaud's muffled struggles also ceased. "You only said how many fingers I was holding up after he'd spoken, so Raika will keep him quiet in order to prevent any further cheating. Do not worry, he is not being harmed."

"Mm mm," Chaud muttered.

"Now . . . how many fingers am I holding up, ProtoMan? Raika, please keep Chaud still, he may be silenced at the moment but he can still move and give away hints without using his voice."

There would be no help from his operator, now. SearchMan was practically torturing him at this point.

"Answer me, ProtoMan."

He'd just have to guess and hope he was correct.

" . . . Five," ProtoMan said as confidently as he could.

Silence.

"I'm not even holding up my hand," SearchMan eventually informed him.

"You put down your hand-"

"I didn't even raise it this time. I'm going to ask you one last question and I want a honest answer this time."

ProtoMan almost wanted to run away. Why couldn't his glitches have made him deaf instead? At least then he could have just lip-read everything, not that he was any good at that.

"Are you blind?"

Lan and MegaMan gasped, and Raika let out a low, considering hum. Chaud, still being silenced by Raika, said nothing.

There was no point denying it now. Even if he did, no one would believe him.

"Yes," he said quietly.

"But he's a NetNavi," Lan said, stunned. "How . . . how is he . . ."

"How old are you in human terms, ProtoMan?" SearchMan asked. It sounded as though he already knew the answer, and was just asking ProtoMan to confirm it.

"I am over two decades old," ProtoMan said.

"Decades?" MegaMan whispered in shock.

"I was created as part of an ambitious project at Zephyram," ProtoMan began, speaking with little to no emotion. He couldn't muster it up anymore, he was just so tired of everything. "The scientist who created me is Shuseki Blaze, who was also the leader of the project. I and twenty-nine other Navis, known as the ProtoNumber Series, were created to be the prototypes of what would later be known as newgen Navis."

"Where are the other prototypes now?" SearchMan asked.

"Deleted. The project was shut down halfway through because, even after thirty attempts, my creator and his team could not create a good enough prototype. Funding was pulled and they were forced to delete all thirty of us."

"But you weren't deleted," MegaMan said.

"I do not know why my creator spared me. He has never explained this, and I have no desire to find out why."

"But how are you blind?" Lan asked, still sounding as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"There was a glitch in my sight programming that the team did not notice until they had activated me, and by then it was too late to fix."

"So why didn't anyone try to fix it later?"

"Mm," Chaud said. A moment later, he was speaking normally again, so presumably he had gotten Raika to let him go. "I tried to fix it. I kept looking at his programming over and over, but it's too deep, so deep that he might be deleted if it's messed with."

"You tried to fix me?" ProtoMan asked, surprised. Chaud had never told him this before.

"I . . . yeah," Chaud admitted. "Sometimes I looked into your programming while you were in sleep-mode, just to see if there was anything I could do. In the end I just made your helmet, because I can't fix the glitches."

"So your helmet allows you to see," SearchMan said.

"And you made it?" Raika asked Chaud, sounding incredibly impressed. "I think you might be the most intelligent twelve-year-old I've ever met."

"But ProtoMan had that helmet when we first met them, and Chaud was eleven at the time," MegaMan spoke up.

"Most intelligent eleven-year-old, then."

"I was nine when I made it," Chaud corrected him quietly.

And there was yet another silence, but this time it was a stunned and impressed one.

"I have another question." SearchMan brought them all back on-topic. "Chaud, you said 'glitches'. That implies more than one. What are these other glitches, ProtoMan?"

"The typical ones you'd expect with a failed prototype," ProtoMan said. "But the main one, aside from my blindness, is balance. My centre of gravity is off by just a few degrees - not enough that it can actually be considered a proper glitch, but it's enough to give me the balance of a drunk pelican."

"And your helmet fixes that too?"

"It's cat logic," Chaud replied. "The helmet lets him see because of the visor, and the rest of it is mostly aesthetic - but it also changes his hair to act as a counterbalance, like a cat's tail."

"So without your helmet, you're completely blind and have poor balance," SearchMan summarised the information that ProtoMan had given him. "Is this why you're fighting so badly all of a sudden?"

"I can fight blind. I have done it before - it was how I was originally trained, how both Chaud and I were trained," ProtoMan explained. "But I cannot fight without his direction. Not properly, anyway."

"Hm . . . You mentioned the ProtoNumber Series. From that, I gather that ProtoMan isn't your original name?"

The sudden change in topic was so abrupt that ProtoMan simply answered automatically.

"It is not," he replied. "My original name was Proto-13."

SearchMan let out a grunt of surprise, and Raika took in a deep breath.

"What's so shocking about that?" Lan wondered. "His name used to be a number, so what?"

"Proto-13 was the original prototype Navi that most, if not all, newgen Navis from fifteen years ago were based on," Raika explained to him. "You might call him the father of all modern Navis. But I thought he was nothing more than a rumour - I didn't ever think Proto-13 could have existed, nor did I believe that any single Navi could be the progenitor for an entire species."

"I exist," ProtoMan said dryly. "Unfortunately."

"Don't say that," Chaud begged.

ProtoMan softened. "I'm sorry," he muttered.

"So . . . basically, ProtoMan's really old?" Lan summarised everything in those few words.

"Once again, your ability to summarise extensive detail into a few words astounds me," Raika sighed. "But, yes. ProtoMan, why were you and the other ProtoNumbers created?"

"The Zephyram project was to answer the demands of the public, who wished for more human-like NetNavis," ProtoMan answered. "They wanted Navis that weren't just obvious programs made to look pretty, they wanted beings they could actually talk to. It was for this reason that we ProtoNumbers were created with more humanoid appearances, and why we were each programmed with unique emotions emulators."

"Emotions emulators?"

"An emotions emulator copies human emotion and replicates them in an oldgen Navi," ProtoMan said. "It is a feature which did not exist before we were created."

"So . . . your emotions are just copied?" MegaMan sounded like he was going to cry.

"No!" ProtoMan snapped. His tiredness melted away and turned to a burning need to make these people understand what he was. "Perhaps that was all it was at first, and all it ever would have been - but then, one day, my creator decided to turn me into a real Navi. I was never meant to be one, only a simple failed prototype that should have been deleted and forgotten about. But I was downloaded into a PET, a special one which could hold my glitched programming without a problem, and I was given a new name and an operator. I . . . I do not know when or how it happened, but my emotions emulator evolved somehow, and my copied emotions became real. Everything I feel, everything I think, is _real_. Even though I do not know how, I know it is because of Chaud. If I had not met him or become his Navi, I would have lived out the rest of my days as a mindless program. I'm not Proto-13 anymore. I am ProtoMan. And glitched and failed prototype though I may be, I am real. My emotions are real. I am not a copy. I am a NetNavi."

There was a ringing silence after his speech. A lot of these silences seemed to be happening lately, and for a wide variety of reasons.

But he had to make them _understand_.

"I wish I had a CopyBot right now," Chaud whispered, breaking the silence.

"What? Why?" ProtoMan asked, startled.

"So I could hug you."

"Are you _crying_?" Lan asked, shocked.

"N-no," Chaud said unconvincingly.

"You really are a terrible liar," ProtoMan said softly, smiling in his general direction.

"Well, that was . . . mildly dramatic," Raika said, after another brief pause during which everyone quietly allowed Chaud to get himself back together. "ProtoMan."

ProtoMan turned his head towards Raika.

"Thank you for telling us this," Raika told him. "It must have been hard, I know. You've been sitting on this for so long."

"I have," ProtoMan murmured. "And I asked Chaud to also keep it from you. I . . . I have one request, however."

"And that is?" It was SearchMan who spoke this time.

"Please, do not treat me any differently. It . . . that is mostly why I did not say anything about this before. I know what I am, what I used to be, but I only ever wished to be treated as a normal NetNavi. I ask that you try to see past this."

"Past it?" MegaMan repeated. "There's no need for that. We know who and what you are right now, and now we know who and what you were before you met Chaud. We don't need to see past this because it's a part of you, and you're still you, no matter what. Y'know, if we thought otherwise, we'd never have gotten past the whole Dark ProtoMan business."

"That . . . that is true," ProtoMan had to admit. "I . . . then . . ."

"Like he said, you're still you," SearchMan said. "Doesn't matter if you're blind with the balance of a - what did you say it was? - the balance of a drunk pelican. You're ProtoMan and that's all."

"Thank you. A-all of you."

MegaMan cleared his throat a little awkwardly.

"I, um, don't mean to spoil the moment," he said reluctantly, "but what do we do now? The way things are, SearchMan and I will end up having to do this on own our while ProtoMan's forced to sit in the sidelines. None of us want that, and I seriously doubt that we'll be able to win anything unless we actually work together."

It was SearchMan who replied, with a tone that would have been fitting for a criminal mastermind revealing his plan to the hero.

"Oh, don't worry," he said slyly. "I have a few ideas."

 **OOOOOO**

Aaaand this one also ended up being longer than I thought as well, and I don't even have a _Skyrim_ story to blame this time since basically 99% of it was chapter.

But whatever, the long chapter is - I hope - worth the content.

We have ProtoMan being forced into a test by the ever-observant SearchMan, and Chaud attempting to help him cheat, but both are thwarted by Raika who basically holds Chaud hostage until ProtoMan is finally forced to admit the truth.

And then ProtoMan answering all those questions and explaining his origins as Proto-13, and Raika's little revelation there about Proto-13 being rumoured to be the father of all modern Navis.

In this canon, ProtoMan is actually over two decades old. I don't really wanna mention specifics cus then I'll have to draw up a timeline for him, but I sort of guess that his actual age is something like twenty-one years old or something like that. Definitely over two decades, though.

And SearchMan is always The Man With A Plan.

It's kinda like this - ProtoMan gives us sass, MegaMan gives us cuteness, and SearchMan gives us plans. And of course it's the best damn combo on the entire planet.

Read and review!


	42. Blind Panic, Part 5

Another _Skyrim_ story for you guys, but this time it's considerably shorter so don't worry.

I joined something called the Thieves Guild, and holy balls is this the coolest thing I've done in this game so far. I swear, if the entire questline is gonna be as awesome as the first quest, then this is gonna be a wild ride from start to finish.

To sum it up - my first quest for the Thieves Guild was to break into some rich elf's estate, burn down three of his beehives, and then rob him. And I managed it almost entirely through stealth, which is a first for me (I figured I shoud give stealth a go since I've found the awesome wonder that is archery), and I only had to kill one guy to stop him from raising the alarm.

This is gonna be _awesome_.

Also, something I told Cin about - what things the Net Saver trio and their Navis would be a part of in _Skyrim_. Lan and MegaMan would be part of The Companions, Chaud and ProtoMan would be part of the Dark Brotherhood Assassins, and Raika and SearchMan would be part of the Thieves Guild. I'm not bothering with the army things because both of those suck and everything else I can join is _awesome_ so far.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

A map.

That was SearchMan's plan - or a basic idea of it, anyway. While they could not get the layout of the actual battlefields (that would be considered cheating and despite ProtoMan's earlier wishing, he had no actual desire to cheat), a map of the original arena, complete with the base locations, was something that SearchMan could certainly provide him.

SearchMan downloaded it directly to ProtoMan, so he could access it without needing to actually see it. To humans, this would likely be a form of . . . telepathy, probably, but for Navis it was just simply downloading something - a transference of data, if you would. He could imagine the layout in his mind's eye without ever having to actually see it.

And the best part? SearchMan had managed to add in an extremely helpful TrackerProgram which told ProtoMan exactly where he was, where his teammates were, and where their opponents were.

It wasn't cheating. It was not.

It also was not an attachment because it had been downloaded directly into ProtoMan rather than onto him, so he could make use of the arena map as much as he wanted and no one aside from his friends would know the difference.

But a map with a TrackerProgram attached to it wasn't the only part of SearchMan's plan.

ProtoMan stumbled out of the sandstorm of round four and onto the hard floor of another team's base. According to the TrackerProgram, he was at Base E - and two out of three Team Wrecker Navis were standing not five metres away from him.

It was a pity this map did not show him what the two Navis were doing, but they had certainly spotted him - he had made no secret of his entrance.

"SearchMan?" ProtoMan called, making his voice as uncertain as he could. "Is that you?"

After a moment of silence, the two Team Wrecker Navis split up and slowly began to close in on him from opposite sides. ProtoMan kept absolutely still, turning his head from one side to the other with a confused frown.

"Is MegaMan with you as well?" he asked.

Both Navis silently activated their weapons - well, he said 'silently', but ProtoMan heard the activations and very carefully did not react - and moved in closer, no doubt wanting to take him by surprise. That was the thing about heavyset Navis; even when they attempted stealth, they could be detected very easily if one knew how to.

However, the Team Wrecker Navis had made on fatal mistake - they had assumed he was alone.

An expertly-aimed shot from SearchMan's Scope Gun brushed past ProtoMan and hit the first of the two Navis, blowing them back. Another shot from SearchMan and the Navi was knocked out of the round. ProtoMan immediately activated his own weapon and charged straight for the second Navi, who paused in their confusion, and their hesitation was all ProtoMan needed.

He made a wide arc, slanting upwards, and shoved the Navi back several paces where they stood there, groaning. And now a third shot, hastily-charged but still powerful, blasted past ProtoMan and hit the mark dead-on, downing the second Navi just like the first.

ProtoMan waited until everything was still and silent before starting forward to check on the second Navi. He prodded them with his Sword and once he was satisfied, turned in the direction of Base E's flag.

"I have it," SearchMan reported, from the raised platform. His voice grew louder as he came down and walked over to ProtoMan. "Two Navis in one go. That's one for the record."

"Ours, or the tournament's?" ProtoMan wondered.

"I have no idea. I believe Raika is keeping track, though."

They both turned and went back out into the sandstorm - this time the battlefield was a desert-based area, and a raging sandstorm impeded any Navi's progress to the other bases, not to mention the actual desert itself.

ProtoMan could hardly stand up in it, what with sand blasting at him constantly from any given direction. SearchMan touched his arm, just enough for him to feel it, and then they both linked arms. To anyone watching, it would have looked as though they were holding onto _each other_ for support, but the reality was that it was SearchMan who was doing the supporting.

They made it back to their own base without incident, and MegaMan, who had been waiting vigilantly for their return, greeted them cheerfully.

"Did you get it?" he called out.

ProtoMan felt SearchMan's grip on him shift as the other Navi raised the hand that was holding onto the flag in response.

He smiled as MegaMan cheered loudly, and allowed SearchMan to help him onto their base's platform. Once they were there, SearchMan broke off to add the captured flag to their own stash - which was now three with this one - and and he sank onto the floor gratefully.

"You need a rest?" MegaMan asked him.

ProtoMan would have normally said 'no', but fighting through a sandstorm after having battled two heavy Navis - even if he had help - was exhausting. He nodded.

"I'm taking the next raid, I can do it alone if you don't mind staying here," MegaMan offered.

"I do not mind."

A pause, and then MegaMan grunted.

"Sorry, I just nodded," he explained.

"The way we're going, we'll end up winning the entire tournament," SearchMan said optimistically, coming over. "MegaMan, are you heading out right now?"

"Yep. ProtoMan's staying here, though."

"Understandable. I hate that sandstorm as well. Whoever decided it should be a battlefield option deserves to be shot . . ."

Ah, yes, SearchMan was a Sharonian Navi - he would be more used to a frozen desert rather than a sandy one. This probably irritated him to no end.

Though, despite his hatred of this particular battlefield, SearchMan's plan was a rather ingenious one. Unlike previous battlefields, this desert one was a more or less flat plain (meaning that it housed nothing that could obstruct their progress from one end of the arena to the other, aside from sand dunes and the sandstorm itself), so the map was completely accurate, which meant ProtoMan would not need to worry about random objects that he couldn't see being in his way.

While SearchMan and MegaMan had a general idea of the layout of the arena, they also relied on ProtoMan's map - both for the accurate directions and the fact that it could tell them exactly where their opponents were.

So, while one of them - typically MegaMan or SearchMan - stayed behind at their own base to defend it, the other two would go out on raids, targeting specific bases. So far, they had used this tactic to attack Base A and Base G, both of which belonged to teams who were fairly decent competition, but not as much as Team Wrecker happened to be.

The main reason their third target in this round had been Team Wrecker was because they had, once again, decided to go almost exclusively after ProtoMan. It was partly why they were doing these raids in pairs rather than on their own (thanks to the map, ProtoMan could now go around on his own without getting pathetically lost, but it was not safe enough for that).

During their second raid, when MegaMan had been paired with ProtoMan, two of the Navis from Team Wrecker had appeared. ProtoMan had been keeping tabs on the Base G Navis, making sure that all three of them were nowhere near their base (which they frequently and foolishly left unguarded) while MegaMan stole their flag, and so he had not noticed the Team Wrecker Navis until they were quite literally on top of him. They had almost knocked him out before he had managed to fight back, and even though MegaMan joined the fight almost immediately, they both ended up taking serious damage and had been forced to retreat back to their base to recover.

Yes, they had still gotten the flag, but the Team Wrecker Navis had once again tried to take ProtoMan down. So SearchMan had decided to retaliate and steal their flag, while knocking out whoever happened to be there at the time. And because they had knocked out two of the Navis, that once again left only a single Team Wrecker Navi on the battlefield, fighting for a flagless base and two downed teammates.

"Your plan is excellent," ProtoMan commented to SearchMan.

"Better than yours, at the very least," SearchMan joked.

"Getting a birds-eye-view of the entire battlefield is a good idea, I should think."

"Yes, except we can only fly when we are in Cross Fusion. Your idea was mildly stupid."

"Perhaps we could have thrown MegaMan up into the air?"

" . . . I sincerely doubt that either of us could actually throw him that high, but now I can imagine building some sort of catapult to do it for us . . ."

"And you said my idea was stupid."

"Hush, you."

ProtoMan smirked.

A moment later that smirk was wiped off his face when the TrackerProgram alerted him to a Navi from an opposing team - not the final member of Team Wrecker, but another one - attempting to sneak up on them from behind.

"Behind us, to my right," he warned SearchMan.

SearchMan grunted to show he'd heard, and slunk off. A few seconds later, ProtoMan heard rapid-fire shots from his Scope Gun, and distant shrieks from the Navi that had been sneaking up on them. ProtoMan checked the TrackerProgram again and found that they were no longer moving, and a moment later the announcers declared them out of the round.

Yes, this plan was definitely excellent.

 **OOOOOO**

I still haven't explained the rules of the DenTech Battle Royale Tournament in the narration, so in the first AN next chapter (which will hopefully be the last one), I'll explain the rules.

I would explain them here, but I'm wary of accidentally creating a third long-ass chapter in a row for the same 'part'.

But whatever, in this chapter we get some awesome teamwork - ProtoMan being used as not-so-helpless-bait, SearchMan being awesome as usual, and MegaMan being the nicest little cutie on the planet.

Also a brief discussion to put MegaMan into a catapult for the sole reason of seeing him fly.

No, they're not being serious. Probably.

Read and review!


	43. Blind Panic, Part 6

Before I get into explaining the rules, I'm gonna respond to blazenight01's review.

Blazenight01 - the canon explanation is that they were in their PETs, and that Chaud was more focused on his past self and past Lan rather than the Navis. If it had been from ProtoMan's POV, then we may have seen them. The non-canon explanation is that I basically forgot about them because I was more focused on writing angry Chaud being angry and annoyed ProtoMan being annoyed. But they were still there, just not featured.

Anyway, the rules.

The most obvious rule I wanna explain is about the flags thing - the tournament is called the DenTech Battle Royale Tournament, but a lot of the basics come from capture-the-flag-style games. There are eight bases, and eight Navi teams of three, so each Navi team is assigned to a base, which all have one letter from the first eight letters of the alphabet. The letter doesn't determine the location of the base, it's completely randomised. Each base has a digital flag that opposing teams can capture, but until they take it back to their own base and add it to their stash, they won't have truly captured the base they stole it from. That means another team can take the flag by force and claim that steal as their own if they can get it back to their own base. It's also possible to steal already-stolen flags from opposing bases, but usually a team will leave at least one member behind to guard the stash. The rounds end when seven of the eight bases have been captured, so these rounds can last almost forever because of Navis stealing flags from each other, and also stealing their own flags back.

The rules regarding Navi battles are more related to battle royale rules. There's no limit for how many Navis can fight at once, so maybe you'll end up with a full team ganging up on a single Navi, or even a massive skirmish between three or four teams at once. Navis can be knocked out of a round but will be allowed back in for the next round, and an entire team can be taken out for a whole round this way. Navi's aren't allowed any attachments or help from their operators, so it's all basic skills (such as MegaMan's Mega Buster and ProtoMan's Proto Sword).

There are six total rounds for the tournament - the first five are pure capture-the-flag with a few elements from battle royale-style games. The sixth one is the special one, since it's the last one. It's more of an elimination round now, since the flags have been taken out of the equation but bases still exist, so the Navis go for each other and take out opposing team members instead of stealing flags. The last team standing is declared the winner of the round and is rewarded with points that correspond to however many Navis they've taken out (two points for each Navi).

And now for the way the points system works. You already know how it works for the last round, and for the previous rounds it's fairly similar - except Navi teams can't get points from the opposing Navis they take out. Instead, they get points from each flag they manage to capture and successfully keep (one point for every flag). They can only get a point if they get the flag back to their base and add it to their stash, and they can keep that point even if another team steals that same flag. This means that some Navi teams will 'allow' other teams to steal their flags, for the sole purpose of stealing those flags back before the other team gets them to their own base, because if they can successfully steal those flags back and get them to their base again, they get points for each re-captured flag.

So, essentially, Team Net Police weren't really doing very well in the first three rounds with their few points.

But after the little talk from the fourth chapter, SearchMan obviously came up with an awesome plan which allowed them to do so much better.

Oh, and in case you're wondering why Team Wrecker kept targeting ProtoMan, it's because they could sense he wasn't at his most powerful, so they decided to go after him. And SearchMan decided that they were gonna get revenge in the most awesome way.

But anyway, this is the last chapter! Unfortunately I won't be showing the final round cus I really, really wanna make this the last chapter. But don't worry, I'll briefly go over it in the narration.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

They won. It took a lot of effort, but Team Net Police had managed to turn the tide in the last three rounds of the tournament, in the final round especially. That one had been an elimination round, which Team Net Police had dominated through sheer power.

Though ProtoMan had relied more on stealth than anything else.

But after the tournament was over and they were given their reward for winning (a trophy which would simply go to the commissioner, because it was he who had asked them to represent the Net Police in this, and a sum of zenny which they split between each other quite happily), he was given his helmet back - and honestly, he cared more about getting it back than anything else. He could see again, and he stood on Chaud's shoulder, unable to stop grinning like a loon.

"Enjoying yourself?" Chaud asked him, smiling. ProtoMan was glad he could see that smile again.

"Immensely," ProtoMan replied. He sounded somewhat giddy. "I can see colours again. I love colours. Absolutely love them. Have I ever told you that?"

"Yep."

"Well, I am telling you again - I love colours. With every inch of my being. I am never taking this helmet off ever again."

"And what if something like this pops up again?"

"Then pride be damned, I will not bother with it."

Chaud laughed.

He stopped laughing, mainly out of curiousity, when Raika called him over. Whatever the older Net Saver wanted, it sounded vaguely serious, and he had a strange, almost nervous expression on his face.

"Don't take this the wrong way," Raika began, and ProtoMan was immediately on alert.

"If you are about suggest that either of us are not up to our jobs because of my blindness-" he started to snap.

"No!" Raika cried, eyes widening. "No, I would never- why would you think I would ever suggest anything like that?" He blinked, and sighed. "Ah. No, I can understand why you'd think that. But it's not that, honestly. It's just . . . something I realised, after you told us about your origins."

"Go on," Chaud said curiously.

"ProtoMan is blind without his helmet, and he has various glitches, right? And coincidentally - or perhaps not so coincidentally - you also have some glitches during Cross Fusion, more specifically the colourblind glitch. I thought . . . well, I think they could be related."

ProtoMan and Chaud exchanged a glance and a worried frown.

"So," ProtoMan said slowly, turning back to Raika, "what you are saying is that . . . the Cross Fusion glitches are my fault?"

"That's not what he's saying at all!" Chaud quickly said. He glanced at Raika, looking mildly desperate. "Right?"

"It's not," Raika confirmed. "I'm just saying, there might be a relation. Some of ProtoMan's glitches could be carrying over into Cross Fusion. The fault belongs with neither of you, because you can't control this. That's all. I just wanted to tell you, because this might be important to figuring out how to fix it."

"Fix it?" ProtoMan repeated. He, like Chaud, had always assumed that their glitches would be there forever - he had never considered getting any of them fixed, mainly because in his case the removal of the glitches would mean his deletion.

He did not want to know what could happen if the glitches in Cross Fusion were removed somehow.

Raika looked slightly awkward. "Chaud, ProtoMan . . . this is entirely up to you," he said, and now it sounded as though he was leading up to something, "but what do you say to telling Dr. Hikari about this? About ProtoMan, and the colourblind glitch?"

"T-tell him?" Chaud stammered, wide-eyed.

"Yes," Raika said. "I know why you didn't want to tell him about this, why neither of you wanted to say anything, but . . . listen, he's the expert. He's literally the man who invented Cross Fusion. If anyone can fix this, it's him. Look, you don't have to make a decision right now, and I promise I won't go behind your backs and tell Dr. Hikari myself. I'm just throwing it out there."

" . . . I am very tempted to tell you to get lost," ProtoMan began, "but you make valid points. I - we - will consider this."

"We will?" Chaud asked, giving him a startled glance.

"Yes," ProtoMan replied. He bit his lip. "I mean, if that is alright with you?"

"I-it's fine, I just . . . didn't really expect this," Chaud sighed. He looked at Raika. "Uh, you really promise not to tell Dr. Hikari if we don't wanna do it?"

"I swear upon my parents' graves," Raika promised, completely serious.

"Then . . . okay. We'll consider it," Chaud said. "Um, thank you. I think."

"Hey, I'm here to help." Raika shrugged. "I'm your friend, remember."

"Yeah," Chaud said quietly, smiling, "I remember."

ProtoMan glanced at SearchMan, who had been quietly standing on Raika's shoulder, watching the conversation observantly. Their eyes met - or SearchMan's eyes met ProtoMan's visor - and SearchMan placed a hand over his chest and bowed his head slightly.

 _Same goes for me_ , was the unspoken oath.

 **OOOOOO**

Less focus on the tournament since it's over, and more on Raika being his usual big brother self and offering Chaud a possible solution to the colourblind glitch. I'm torn as to whether or not I wanna write a 'part' for that, since I'm not certain if Chaud would agree to telling Dr. Hikari about all this for the sole purpose of getting the Cross Fusion glitches fixed.

Like ProtoMan said in his narration, it's not really clear what might happen if the glitches in Cross Fusion are fixed. For ProtoMan, fixing the glitches is basically a death sentence, but it may be different for Cross Fusion - or it might not.

Hmm . . . can't remember if there's anything else I wanna say.

Oh well, I can just say it next chapter if I need to.

Next time is the follow-up to a previous 'part', _What's Solid?_ , and it'll be . . . well, a mixture of angst and humour. Have fun waiting for _Just Keep Swimming_!

Read and review!


	44. Just Keep Swimming, Part 1

Welcome to _Just Keep Swimming_! Prepare for feels. Or at the very least some mildly amusing feels.

Anyway, reviews!

Mari - aww, you do? I honestly think I'm not too good at fight scenes, I'm better at dialogue if I'm honest, but that's really nice to hear! Gives me a bit of confidence in writing things like this, hah.

Oh, and a little note about this - I've written a Christmas special called _Wonderful Time_ , and once again I'll be uploading it on the day, like with the Halloween special. Because of that and the fact that I'm writing this, I may end up uploading _Just Keep swimming_ before _Wonderful Time_ even though I've finished that before this, or I could end up uploading _Wonderful Time_ before this because I'm not sure how long it'll take for me to actually write _Just Keep Swimming_.

I've put a similar message into the ANs of _Wonderful Time_ , so maybe some of this won't make sense if either happens. But hey at least I'm warning you, just in case!

Moving on.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Why did half of these battles always end up with a chase?

Chaud wondered exactly that as he dashed through the trees after the current enemy, a criminal independent Navi using a CopyBot to cause general chaos. But after spotting the trio of Net Savers coming for him in full Cross Fusion, he took off like a bullet and led them on a merry chase through the forest.

Chaud had already drawn far ahead of Lan and Raika, but he could still see the vague shape of the Navi in front of him. It was likely that the Navi was using a battle chip of some sort, perhaps an Area Steal, to stay ahead of him - otherwise Chaud was fairly certain that he would've caught up to the Navi by now. At the very least he could keep going and hopefully catch up to the Navi at some point, and keep him there until his friends showed up.

He downloaded an Area Steal of his own to boost himself forward just enough to get within a few feet of the Navi, then activated a Proto Sword and readied it to attack.

But then suddenly the Navi veered away, and Chaud - who had swung with all his might in order to get a good hit in for a surprise attack - stumbled wildly. There was a river barely metres away, easily distinguishable now that he knew what water looked like in black and white, and he managed to stop before he tumbled straight into it, but he was almost on the edge. And then the Navi appeared out of nowhere and shoved him straight into the water.

The water was deep - deeper than a normal river should have been. But this wasn't the first time he'd been thrown into water like this, and he panicked almost as soon as he hit the water.

The panic was enough to force him out of Cross Fusion, and wasn't this a familiar scene - he was drowning, and his PET was floating beside him, ProtoMan shouting something that he couldn't hear through all the water.

He opened his mouth to scream and water rushed in, choking him.

A moment later he was almost at the bottom of the river. The last time something like this had happened, he had been in a lake, and it had been a lot deeper than this - but even if a this was a river, it was still more than enough to drown him. Mainly because he couldn't swim, but Chaud had a feeling that, even if he could swim, he would still panic.

He was running out of air and his PET was on the bottom of the river with him now, and he could see ProtoMan pointing up at something, his mouth moving frantically and soundlessly.

Chaud managed to force his head up, and he was just in time to see the surface of the water explode. There was a dark blue shape in the water and it was rapidly moving towards him, with what looked like a hand stretching out.

That hand grabbed Chaud's arm and pulled him up. He was too close to unconsciousness to wonder if his PET had been grabbed as well, and he was being pulled up to the surface and out of the water, and then he was dumped onto the side of the river.

"Hey!" Lan shouted, dropping Chaud's PET next to him. "Hey, c'mon buddy, don't do this to me. Not again, okay? Hey, breathe already!"

He hit Chaud's back - gently, because his strength was greatly enhanced during Cross Fusion and of course anything harder would have broken Chaud's ribs - and suddenly the water that Chaud had swallowed came rushing back out. He choked and coughed, but thankfully this time he didn't throw up, so at least there was that. Maybe he hadn't been underwater as long as last time.

"You good now?" Lan quickly asked him, leaning down to get a better look at Chaud.

Chaud managed to croak out what would have been a response had he been able to actually speak.

The sound of rapid footsteps approaching caused both of them to look up. Raika, still in Cross Fusion like Lan, stopped a few feet away and looked at them both.

"You alright?" he asked, mildly out of breath.

"He sounded like a frog just now," Lan told him.

Chaud glared at him.

"He'll be fine," Lan added, upon seeing the glare.

Raika sighed and shook his head, then knelt down. "Hey, Chaud," he said, "think you can still fight? This guy's way too fast for me or Lan, and he just jumped the river to god-knows-where. He could be anywhere by now, but if you can catch up to him, we might stand a chance of arresting him before he gets away."

"He almost drowned not half a minute ago!" ProtoMan exclaimed. "And you wish for him to fight again? He can hardly breathe!"

"M' fine," Chaud forced out, making the three of them glance at him. "Jus' lemme . . . g'my breath back."

"We may not have time for that." Raika at least looked apologetic, and Chaud knew he wouldn't be saying any of this if they had an option. But, like he said, the Navi was too fast for him or Lan - but Chaud had almost caught up to him before he'd been shoved into the water.

Chaud coughed out a little bit of stray water, and shakily forced himself up into a sitting position. Lan helped him, and Raika reached out just in case he was needed to help steady him some more.

"'Kay," Chaud gasped out. "M' good."

He wasn't, and they could tell, but he was the only choice they had. He picked up his PET and downloaded the Synchro Chip without bothering to get up, and then suddenly he wasn't feeling so breathless anymore.

That was probably ProtoMan's doing. He stood up, almost stumbling onto his backside again, and stood there half-wavering. This was definitely a terrible idea after almost drowning, but there wasn't anything he could do about it.

Raika had said the Navi had jumped over the river, so Chaud turned towards it, intending to activate Jet Vernier and fly over it, because he rather suspected that he was still too weak to jump further than a few feet even with ProtoMan's help.

But the moment he saw the water, he froze up.

" . . . Chaud?" Raika asked, after a few moments of silence. "What's wrong?"

ProtoMan could feel the panic welling up inside Chaud, and of course he wasn't going to let it consume him.

 _[Calm down,]_ he said. _[It's okay. You won't be going near the water. You're just flying over it.]_

 _I can't,_ Chaud thought. _I can't do it. I'll fall in._

 _[You won't.]_

 _I will! The- the Jet Vernier'll fail and I'll fall in and- and I'll drown again!_

 _[Calm down-]_

 _I CAN'T DO THIS!_

Cross Fusion came undone again and he staggered back, just barely noticing Lan diving forward to catch his PET before it crashed to the ground. Under normal circumstances Chaud would've felt terrible for almost letting it crash and break, but he was too occupied to care right now.

"I can't do it," Chaud whispered, tugging at his hair and closing his eyes as tight as he could, in a botched attempt to block out the terror. "I can't. I'll drown. I c-can't . . . I'm sorry. I'm sorry!"

"Alright," Raika said. His voice was strangely calm, and Chaud glanced up. Raika's expression was unreadable. "Stay here. We'll be back as soon as possible. Stay out of sight, okay?"

Lan handed Chaud his PET, and, with a brief backward glance, followed Raika to the edge of the river. Chaud watched them both fly off as fast as their Jet Verniers could take them, and then he staggered over to a nearby hollow tree and slumped down inside it.

At least he was out of sight.

But he'd screwed up, again. And, no matter what anyone said, this time it was definitely his fault - all because he was too scared to fly over water.

 **OOOOOO**

This scene is incredibly similar to the one from _What's Solid?_ , mainly because there's no other way for it to happen.

My original idea was to have Chaud just sort of get to the water and freeze up, but I thought that the panic would be more realistic and even worse if it came right after he almost drowns again.

Raika's not angry, by the way. He's just worried, but it's kinda hard to tell cus he's Raika. Lan is just as worried, but they have a criminal to catch.

Next chapter, we'll be skipping ahead since the criminal-arresting stuff isn't the main focus of this 'part', though you'll find out what happened with this at some point. Either during the narration or the dialogue, though if it's not mentioned (like if I can't figure out how to fit it into a conversation or whatever), then I'll just tell you in an AN.

Read and review!


	45. Just Keep Swimming, Part 2

Like I said, we're skipping ahead here, and moving straight into the actual plot of this 'part'.

Dunno how many chapters this will spawn currently, but I'm aiming for three. Hopefully I won't go overboard again, lol.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"No," Chaud said.

"Chaud, please," ProtoMan sighed.

"No."

"You will be perfectly safe, I assure you."

"Answer's still no."

"You walked through the door. You can jump into a pool."

"I didn't walk through the door, Raika literally carried me in here!"

"Thanks for the bruises, by the way," Raika called from the other side of the swimming pool.

"You're welcome," Chaud snapped.

"Chaud, listen to me. The water in the shallow end of the swimming pool is not deep," ProtoMan said. "It is five feet. That is all. Not enough to drown in."

Chaud scowled at his Navi.

"ProtoMan," he said slowly, "I'm four foot eight."

ProtoMan paused. An embarrassed silence followed.

"Ah," ProtoMan eventually said. "I . . . forgot. My apologies. Er."

"They have floaties!" Lan announced cheerfully, chucking a pair in Chaud's general direction.

He allowed them to bounce off his arm and fall to the ground, then side-stepped away from them.

"Oh, come on," Lan muttered, rolling his eyes. "Put those on, and you won't sink! I can guarantee it!"

"Then why aren't you wearing any?" Chaud demanded.

"Cus I can swim," Lan replied, and then he jumped into the swimming pool.

Chaud backed away from the resulting splash, curling his lip distastefully. ProtoMan shielded his face from it, frowning at Lan disapprovingly, but he didn't say anything as Lan started swimming around like a pro. Showing off, probably, now that he knew Chaud couldn't swim to save his life (literally).

He'd probably guessed before, back in that lake ages ago, but the stunt at the river had confirmed it - Chaud did not know how to swim, and he was terrified of the water because he'd almost drowned not once, but _twice_. And now he was entirely unwilling to go near water, and had to be forced into DenTech's local gym - and into the swimming pool area - in order to learn how to swim.

"ProtoMan'll make sure you don't drown, you know," MegaMan said, picking up the fallen floaties and holding them out to Chaud. "It's the entire reason we rented these CopyBots from the gym."

SearchMan, who had yet to actually do anything other than lean against the wall next to Raika (who was sitting in a chair near the entrance to the room), nodded his agreement.

"And MegaMan and I are here in case anything goes wrong," the military Navi added. "You're perfectly safe."

"Am I?" Chaud demanded almost hysterically. "Am I really?"

"Yes," ProtoMan said.

"You're lying."

"I am not." ProtoMan held out his arms towards Chaud. He'd already been in the water for several minutes, trying to convince Chaud to jump in, and it was a wonder he hadn't yet tried forcing Chaud in. "Put on the floaties and come into the water, please."

"No."

In the corner of his eye, he noticed Raika sigh and bury his face in his hands. SearchMan next to him was trying to keep a straight face, but it was easy to see the mild frustration in his eyes. Chaud bit his lip but kept his mouth shut - if he said anything, he'd probably just make everyone angrier.

Lan got impatient and pulled himself out of the water, and came over to Chaud. He folded his arms.

"Dude," he said, "c'mon. It's _water_. It's not gonna hurt you!"

"Tell that to the two times I almost drowned!" Chaud snapped.

"Okay, fine," Lan sighed heavily. "I was gonna let you do this on your own, but hey, desperate times and all that."

"What're you-"

Lan's hands flashed out and he shoved Chaud into the swimming pool before he could get another word out.

Chaud instantly panicked and lashed out, but of course struggling was just gonna make things worse in a situation like this - though in his panicked state he didn't care, he just wanted to get out of the water and onto dry land again.

His eyes were closed - it stung to open them in water like this - but he felt strong hands grabbing him. He instantly went limp, putting his full trust in the person who was now dragging him up to the surface, and when his head was above the water he gasped and clung to the person who had pulled him up.

"You're okay," ProtoMan said quietly, "you're alright, calm down. Are your eyes alright?"

Chaud whimpered. His eyes stung - Lan had shoved him in without warning, and they'd been open when he'd gone under, so even if he'd closed his eyes, he'd still gotten some of the water into them. A moment later, ProtoMan was wiping his eyes for him.

While ProtoMan was doing that, Chaud became aware of someone shouting behind them. It sounded like Raika, and he could hear Lan trying to interrupt, but Raika was having none of it. He could also hear MegaMan adding in his own opinion (though he wasn't as loud as Raika) whenever Raika paused for breath, and although SearchMan was silent, it wasn't difficult to feel the disapproval radiating from his general direction.

"Ignore them," ProtoMan advised him. He was moving through the water now, and then Chaud was lifted into the air and sat down on the edge of the swimming pool. "Are you feeling alright, Chaud? Your eyes - are they better?"

Chaud cautiously opened his eyes, and although they still stung, they didn't hurt so much that he couldn't open them. He kept them narrowed though, because opening his eyes fully would probably hurt a lot.

He could see ProtoMan's worried expression through his blurry vision.

"Your eyes are red," ProtoMan told him. "But that should fade."

"Give me some sunglasses and we could be twins," Chaud said, half-smiling. He didn't like being this close to water, but ProtoMan was there, and that made him less freaked out than he would've been.

"-COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE, YOU'RE LUCKY PROTOMAN WAS IN THE WATER, YOU-"

"Raika," ProtoMan called, loud enough to be heard over the shouting, "you can stop shouting, now. Chaud is safe."

"He was always safe," Lan muttered. He sounded like he was sulking. "You can't drown in a swimming pool."

"It's happened before," MegaMan sighed. "Lan, you can't just push people into water. Especially when they can't swim."

"But-"

" _And_ he has a phobia of water, which makes it worse."

"But it's shock therapy!" Lan protested. "Expose him to what he's scared of, and he'll get over his fear!"

"More like it'll get worse," Raika snarled. "Especially if you try and drown him. It's _drowning_ which caused this in the first place, you idiot!"

"I was only trying to help!"

"Next time, don't."

"There won't _be_ a next time," Chaud muttered. He pushed away from the water's edge, scooting backwards on his backside, and didn't stop until he'd put several feet between himself and the swimming pool. Then he stood up and went over to the towels, and started drying himself off.

"There will be," Raika said. He apparently had super-hearing now. "Like it or not, this is going to be a huge problem at some point - in fact, it already _is_ a huge problem."

Chaud gritted his teeth, but he continued drying himself off as if Raika wasn't talking.

"I'm not saying it's your fault, but if you'd been able to get across that river, we may have caught that criminal," Raika went on. "But we didn't have your speed, so we couldn't catch him and he got away. To prevent something like that from happening again, you need to learn how to swim - and you need to get over this fear you've developed." There was a pause and Chaud didn't need to turn around to know that Raika was glaring at Lan. "Though shoving you into water isn't the best way to do that."

"It is a gradual thing, what we need to do," ProtoMan said. He'd gotten out of the water and Chaud wordlessly handed him a towel. "This is not something which can be solved in a day or two. Learning to swim is something which cannot be taught instantly, either. Lan may not understand this, being a fearless and mighty hero, but you may take this as slow or as fast as you feel you need to. But you cannot walk away from this. Raika is correct, this is a problem and it will come up again."

"Like the colourblind glitch," Chaud murmured.

"No."

Chaud glanced up at him, surprised, and ProtoMan tilted his head.

"The colourblind glitch is a result of my programming being mixed with your human form," he explained. "It cannot be fixed - well, maybe. Your fear of water is completely different. This is something we, personally, are able to fix."

"But I can't," Chaud whispered, glancing at the water in the swimming pool. As he had ever since that first time he'd almost drowned in Okuden lake, he felt a now-familiar twinge of fear when he looked at it. The strange thing was, the water was still and calm - a huge contrast to the vast lake or the flowing river. Yet he was still afraid of it.

"You can," ProtoMan told him, "and I will be with you every step of the way, no matter how long this takes."

"Same for us!" MegaMan called. Then he glanced sideways at Lan. "And I'll make sure Lan doesn't shove you in again."

"You guys're never gonna let this go, are you?" Lan sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about the shoving, I just wanna help!"

"I know you do, just . . . help a little less, okay?" Chaud asked him.

Even as Lan pouted and complained, Chaud couldn't help but smile. It was a small, awkward smile that probably showed more of his uncertainty and fear than he would've liked, but he hardly felt any need to hide his emotions from his friends anymore - they already knew what he was like, what he was _really_ like, and they didn't hate him for it.

So . . . even though he was scared of the water, even though he couldn't swim, they were still here, and were perfectly willing (if a little overenthusiastic) to help him get over this.

Friends.

Something he never expected to have. And he couldn't ask for anything better, honestly.

Well, he thought, glancing up at ProtoMan. Maybe there was something better. But his friends were important and he would do anything for them, same as they would for him.

 **OOOOOO**

Not much to say here, since it's . . . the end? Holy crap this didn't end up being three chapters . . .

I am shock.

Gonna keep this AN short cus holy crap am I surprised, I did not expect to get this done so quickly . . .

Who liked ProtoMan low-key sassing Lan during his little speech to Chaud near the end there? I love sassy ProtoMan. I've said it before, and I'll say it a thousand times, cus it's true and it's amazing to write some of his dialogue, it's freaking hilarious.

I'll upload this (looks like it will end up being before _Wonderful Time_ after all, hah), and then maybe take a break for a while until after Christmas. I might type up some chapters or I might not, who knows, but hey let's just see where things go!

Read and review!


	46. Wonderful Time, Part 1

Hi everyone! I'm once again doing another holiday special, this time for Christmas!

I'm not sure if I'll get this finished before I get _Just Keep Swimming_ done, so maybe this AN's message will make no sense, but I might be uploading this before I do _Just Keep Swimming_. I wanna get this one done, definitely, cus I wanna upload it on Christmas day, like I did with the Halloween special.

These are . . . probably gonna be the only two holiday specials I'm gonna do. Easter is . . . basically nothing, and England doesn't really have any other major holidays that I care about aside from Halloween and Christmas.

Anyway, this is sort of my usual speciality of angst and fluff - basically, adorable fluff with a side-order of angst. Or angst with a side-order of fluff, depending on how much angst there ends up being. If I could cook, this would be my best dish.

I just realised I keep forgetting to say Chaud's age in some of these 'parts', but I think it's pretty obvious from the settings . . . hmm. Oh, and as for review replies - if I get this uploaded before _Just Keep Swimming_ , then the review replies will be in those ANs. If _Just Keep Swimming_ gets uploaded before this, then, uh, I guess ignore this?

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

It had been a normal, perfectly fine day until Lan burst into his office and declared that he was invited.

" . . . Invited to what, exactly?" Chaud asked warily.

"To our Christmas party, duh!" Lan replied. As if that had been something that Chaud could guess right off the bat. "We kinda missed it last year, what with us being stuck in Beyondard and all, so Mom and Dad are gonna go all-out this year, and they sent me out to go and invite everyone."

"When you say everyone-"

" _Everyone_ ," Lan repeated.

That . . . that was a lot of people.

"I don't know," Chaud said reluctantly. "Doesn't really sound like my thing."

"Oh, come on, I bet you go to parties all the friggin' time! Y'know, cus of this," Lan said, gesturing around Chaud's office.

"Those are business parties," Chaud corrected. "Not for pleasure. Besides, I'll probably be working on that . . . day . . ."

He trailed off because Lan was giving him a horrified look.

"What?" Chaud asked blankly.

"HOW CAN YOU WORK ON CHRISTMAS!?" Lan screamed, and Chaud had to actively resist the urge to get out of his chair and back away as Lan stormed over and slammed his hands down on Chaud's desk. "That's not right! No one works on Christmas!"

"Bus drivers do, and so do train people, and-"

"You're not a bus driver, Chaud, you're a kid! Like me! Why doesn't your dad give you the day off or something? What, do you two just exchange presents and then get back to work?"

"Well, actually, I haven't had a present in years," Chaud informed him, and instantly regretted his words when Lan's horrified expression got even more horrified.

"You . . . You haven't . . ." Lan seemed unable to speak properly. He stared at Chaud in silence for several seconds, mouth opening and closing uselessly, and then he snapped it shut and gave Chaud a determined glare. "Right, okay, I'm gonna ignore that for now - but you're coming to the party whether you want to or not, got it? You can't say no. I'll get my dad to talk to yours, if that's what it takes."

"Uh, bad idea," Chaud said. "Last time they talked, your dad got angry and started shouting."

"Yeah, well, last time your dad basically tried to kill you with work, so he was completely justified. You're coming to the party and that's that. I got MegaMan to send an email invite and I came over to give you a physical one, so you've got no excuse at all, got it?" Lan slapped a card down onto the desk. It was very brightly-coloured.

"An email what-now?" Chaud glanced down at his PET, sitting in its usual place on his desk, and ProtoMan's hologram appeared on top of it. "Did we get an email from Lan?"

"Er, yes, but it ended up in the spam folder," ProtoMan replied. He looked a little embarrassed. "I . . . assumed it was one of his . . . 'meem' things again, so I deleted it."

"WHAT!?" Lan blurted.

Chaud blinked.

"MegaMan," Lan said quickly, whipping out his own PET, "send another email!"

"O-okay," MegaMan replied. "But, uh, Lan, aren't you being a bit . . . overzealous about this?"

"Chaud hasn't had a Christmas present in _years_ ," Lan replied, as if that justified everything he was babbling about.

"I haven't had a birthday present in years either, are you gonna make a huge deal about that too?" Chaud snapped irritably.

And once again he regretted his words, because now he was getting the same horrified look from both Lan _and_ MegaMan. Sheesh, you'd think he'd just said he'd been diagnosed with a terminal illness or something.

"His brithday is the twenty-fifth of December," ProtoMan helpfully supplied. "It is likely that his father does not bother with either because they are not . . . Why are you looking at me like that?"

"His . . . his birthday's on _Christmas day_?" Lan whispered. He turned his shocked look to Chaud, who shifted uncomfortably. "And you haven't had a present off your dad - or _anyone_ \- in how many years?"

"Uh . . . seven or eight years, give or take?" Chaud guessed, shrugging.

Lan made a sound like a kicked puppy.

"Look, I'll see if I can come to the party if you really want me to go, okay?" Chaud quickly said. Anything to make Lan stop looking like someone had just deleted MegaMan again. "I mean, I can't promise I'll be able to make it, or if I can stay for more than a few minutes, but I'll definitely try. Okay?"

"Yeah," Lan said quietly, "okay. Um. Could you excuse me? I need to, uh, go. Other people to invite. And stuff."

"O-okay," Chaud said.

Lan rushed out of his office without a backward glance. Chaud blinked, and exchanged a look with ProtoMan.

"Did you understand _any_ of that?" Chaud asked.

"No," ProtoMan replied.

"Oh, good, I thought I was the only one . . ."

 **OOOOOO**

This one'll end up being a two-chapter 'part' or a three-chapter 'part', but either way, have some fluff with a side-order of angst, like I said.

My god, I actually liked writing Lan being like that . . . Is he in-character? I don't write him enough to figure out his character, I just mainly see him as a forever-happy sort of character, y'know?

Weirdly enough, I'm better at writing sarcastic and sassy characters than I am at writing characters like Lan . . . Maybe it's just a thing.

Oh well.

Read and review!


	47. Wonderful Time, Part 2

I'll be skipping ahead to the actual party in order to save time, and to make sure I actually keep this limited to two or three chapters. I seem to be developing a habit of getting more than five chapters all in one 'part' . . .

But this time, I hope to keep it limited to a maximum of three. Four if I absolutely need to.

Anyway, have some Christmas feels.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

It was already well into the evening by the time Chaud actually managed to get to the Hikari residence. He'd been certain that he'd missed most of the party at this point, but judging from the loud music he could hear - and the moving shapes by the curtained windows - the party was still going on and a lot of people were still there.

Which was surprising, but maybe it was a good party. He'd only ever been to business parties, and those tended to be . . . well, mellow.

He glanced at ProtoMan, and, at his Navi's nod of encouragement, knocked on the front door of the Hikari house.

After a few moments, the door swung open to reveal Lan, wearing a red and white fluffy hat and a giant grin on his face.

"Hah!" he shouted over the noise. "I knew you'd make it!"

"I shouldn't stay long, my father's probably expecting me to-" Chaud began, but he cut himself off with a yelp as Lan grabbed his arm and hauled him into the house.

"Stuff your old man," Lan scoffed, shutting the front door. He pulled off Chaud's scarf and coat for him and hung them up, and then pulled him through to the living room, where most of the party was taking place.

The Hikari residence certainly had changed. Chaud had only been here a few times, and he'd never seen it decorated like this - there was a huge tree in the corner with tinsel and shiny ornaments attached to it, a bright gold star on top, and tinsel and streamers and all sorts of colourful decorations littering the walls and ceiling.

He'd thought that the place was packed with people, but it turned out that he had been mistaken - what he'd thought was a large group of people turned out to be Lan's main group of friends, plus Dingo and Raika, having something like a dance-off near the window. It was their constantly-moving shapes which he had seen through the curtains, and the music was coming from a CD player on the table, blasting out tunes he'd never heard.

"If you'd come a few hours ago, the whole place would've been filled with people, but mostly everyone went home except for our friends," Lan told Chaud. He had to speak loudly over the music. "We're gonna do the presents stuff in a while, for now we're just having some fun!" He turned to the group near the window and shouted. "HEY GUYS, CHAUD'S HERE!"

They started cheering loudly. It took Chaud a moment to realise who was who - most of them were wearing ridiculous costumes, and he was surprised to see Raika, of all people, wearing a full-body snowman costume and looking just as cheerful as everyone else. He'd been one of the people dancing before Lan had announced Chaud's arrival.

"Here, we got a hat for you," Lan announced, right before he pulled a hat similar to his own over Chaud's eyes.

"Ow," Chaud muttered. He pulled it up so he could see, but kept it on - mainly because he sensed that everyone would probably complain if he wasn't wearing it. Those who weren't wearing costumes were wearing the weird hats instead.

Then he was dragged into the dance-off, although he kept insisting he couldn't dance to save his life. Lan shut that protest down by cheerfully stating that he couldn't dance either, but he was still doing it, as was Raika, Dex and anyone else who had two left feet. And despite his initial misgivings, he actually began to enjoy himself and joined in once or twice, though he preferred to just watch.

Some time later (he'd sort of lost track), the music was stopped and everyone sat down, though there wasn't enough space on the sofas. Chaud sat on the floor with Raika and Dingo either side of him, while everyone else happily argued over sofa seats.

When Dr. Hikari started handing out presents, Chaud was half-surprised to get some himself. While everyone else started tearing into theirs immediately, he sat quietly, watching the small pile at his feet.

"What's wrong?" Raika asked, as he finished pulling off the wrapping of a green and black scarf.

"I . . ." How was he supposed to admit that he didn't really know what to do with all these?

Raika looked at him for a moment.

"Just tear off the wrapping," he advised, obviously working out what was wrong for himself. Raika was painfully observant sometimes.

"What . . . what do I start with, though?" Chaud wondered. Did he need to go in some specific order, or something? Smallest to largest, maybe?

"Any of them."

Chaud looked at the small pile, and decided to just go with it. He picked one out at random - there was a brief moment where he almost forgot how he was supposed to do this, mainly because it had been so long since he'd actually gotten a present, especially all wrapped up like this. And now he not only had one, but _several_ , and hardly knew what to do with them all.

But, as Raika said, just tear off the wrapping.

It was . . . actually strangely satisfying, ripping open the presents. When was the last time he'd done something like this? He could hardly even remember. That was, uh, probably not wise to say out loud, considering how Lan had reacted. Though he still didn't understand why Lan had made such a big deal out of it, or why MegaMan of all people had reacted the same way when ProtoMan had told them about his birthday.

He was at least glad that the others liked the presents he'd brought for them, although he hadn't realised he was meant to wrap them up in paper, and had instead just put them in colourful bags. Luckily they didn't seem to mind, not even Yai (who complained about basically everything), which made Chaud wonder - had Lan said something to them? It was likely, given how he'd reacted when he'd come to invite Chaud to the party. Again, Chaud didn't understand why this was such a big deal, but he was at least thankful that no one seemed to mind getting their presents in bags.

It was nice, he thought, to be allowed to act his age for once. Though he was still considerably more mature than Lan and Dingo, who got so overexcited about some of their presents that they actually screamed out of pure delight.

When the presents-opening was over, he felt a little burnt out and was more than ready to leave. But when he stood up, he was stopped.

"Where're you going?" Lan asked him quickly.

"Uh, well," Chaud began awkwardly. Great, now he felt really rude - how was he meant to explain that he was exhausted? He didn't even know why he was exhausted, but it maybe had something to do with how excited the mood had been since he'd gotten here. That was probably why he was so burnt out.

He cleared his throat, suddenly aware that everyone was looking at him.

"I . . . need to go?" he tried weakly.

"But you can't!" Lan immediately protested, springing up. He grabbed Chaud's shoulder and leaned in close. "Look, just stay a few more minutes, okay? I promise it'll be worth it!"

"Look, I'm . . . I'm tired, okay?" Chaud mumbled uncomfortably. "I've never done anything like this before and it's made me tired."

"Please, just a few more minutes," Lan begged. "Here, sit down." He practically shoved Chaud into the seat he'd just vacated. "Just stay, alright? Mom, Dad, can we do it now?"

"Oh, Lan, don't talk like that!" Haruka exclaimed, half-exasperated and half-amused. "You'll ruin the surprise."

"What surprise?" Chaud asked. "What's going on?"

He watched them all exchange glances, and that told him absolutely nothing. He looked at ProtoMan, who was sitting on the table with all the other Navis. ProtoMan shrugged. He didn't know what was going on either.

Haruka and Dr. Hikari got up and went over to the fridge and a cupboard respectively, and Chaud watched them in pure confusion. He alone seemed to be in the dark here, as everyone else appeared to know exactly what was about to happen.

He was beginning to wonder if he should try making a quick escape when Haruka shut the fridge door and came over holding a large red and black cake. A moment later, Dr. Hikari came back, this time with another bag similar to the ones that the presents had been in.

Had they forgotten some presents or something?

But his confusion only grew when Dr. Hikari, instead of taking the presents out of the bag like he did last time, put the bag in front of Chaud. Haruka placed the cake on the table and they both stepped back, smiling.

"What is this?" Chaud asked.

The two adult Hikaris exchanged glances.

"Lan told us it was a special day for you, more than anyone else," Dr. Hikari explained. "And we've been waiting nearly all day to do this, although it's probably best now that there's less people around."

"On three, everyone!" Haruka called. "One, two-"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHAUD!" everyone shouted at once.

Chaud winced at the volume.

"Sorry," Raika added, being the only one who actually noticed, because everyone else was too busy getting excited about . . . whatever the heck this was.

"Um," Chaud said, and everyone looked at him again, "I'm . . . I'm sorry. I still don't understand."

"It's your birthday," Dingo said, as if that explained everything.

"So?" Chaud asked, utterly confused.

"People get presents on their birthday," Maylu told him.

"But I don't," Chaud pointed out. "Not since . . . Well, I haven't had any. I don't deserve any, so why are you all- um."

Two horrified looks he could sort of handle, even if he was confused as to why he was getting those looks. But now he had no fewer than sixteen of those exact same looks directed his way, and he shrank under their gaze.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"Why do you believe you don't deserve any presents?" Haruka asked him. Her voice was calm, gentle even, but her eyes told another story entirely.

"Well, uh, I mean . . ." Should he lie? No, that would just fail completely, everyone knew he was a terrible liar. "My father said so," he admitted. "And . . . and really, I think he's right."

"Your dad's a terrible person!" Maylu cried angrily. "Why would he say something like that?"

"And why would you believe him?" Tory added.

Chaud opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He couldn't explain it, it was just something that he couldn't use words to describe, and besides - anything he said now would just make things worse.

He looked at his lap and kept quiet.

"Your father's wrong, you know," Raika said. Chaud glanced up at him. "You do deserve presents. For one thing, everyone should get presents on Christmas _and_ on their birthday."

"You said you didn't," Chaud mumbled faintly.

"Because we couldn't afford them," Raika reminded him. "But my uncle always made sure I got _something_ , after he took me in."

"I don't understand," Chaud said, looking down again. He was having to fight back tears now, and was hoping that no one would notice, though that was unlikely. "Why . . . why are you . . ."

"Because you're our friend," Lan told him. "And you _do_ deserve presents. I don't know why you think you don't deserve them, or how your dad could say something so horrible, but I'm telling you that you do deserve them. It's your _birthday_ , Chaud. That should be enough."

"I can't . . . I don't . . ."

"It's okay if you don't understand," Dr. Hikari said. "You don't need to. Like Lan said, it's your birthday, and that's all we need to know. It doesn't matter why."

Chaud shook his head and stood up. He wiped his eyes, frustrated at himself, and stepped around the table.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "Just . . . excuse me, for a minute. P-please."

He grabbed his PET off the table and made his way over to the stairs, painfully aware of everyone watching him. He didn't turn around to see what kind of expressions they had, he just went upstairs. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to try and leave, not after something like that, so instead he found the bathroom and locked himself in.

Then he huddled into a corner, clutching his PET to his chest, and wondered why he was feeling so empty.

 **OOOOOO**

FEELS. Yep, this is definitely gonna end up being a three-chapter 'part'.

This entire thing is ironically called _Wonderful Time_. It does start off as nice, but then it very quickly gets extremely angsty when everyone finds out the reason why Chaud's never actually gotten any presents in the past few years.

Because his dad's a grade-A dick, and he himself doesn't think he should get them.

Chaud thinking he doesn't deserve presents is sort of a result of Shuseki being a dick in general to him. I haven't personally experienced this level of abuse, but me and Cin agree that Chaud probably sees all this as something that he deserves, that it's somehow his fault, so it's sort of like . . . bad psychology, or whatever it's called.

Basically, Chaud's dad is a complete bastard, and I hate him. Me and Cin have spent a good few nights cheerfully discussing how we'd kill him if we got the chance.

Next chapter, we'll get some more of Raika being a Good Big Brother, because bloody hell do I love writing cute interactions between Raika and Chaud.

Read and review!


	48. Wonderful Time, Part 3

Time for the last chapter of _Wonderful Time_ , and have some Good Big Brother Raika feels!

But first, ProtoMan gets to have his say.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"I'm an idiot," Chaud muttered. "The biggest idiot to ever live."

"Chaud, don't . . ." ProtoMan protested. "Don't say that. You are not an idiot."

Chaud looked up at him. "I am," he insisted. "They do all that for me, and what do I do? I basically throw it in their faces. I'm an _idiot_."

"You are not," ProtoMan said. "I am certain they do not mind - you are upset, they can see that, and they cannot fault you for being upset."

"But I'm upset because of something that apparently _everyone but me_ can understand," Chaud told him.

"I cannot understand this either, but that does not make me an idiot, nor does it make you one," ProtoMan replied. "Listen to me, please. You are not at fault here. This - whatever it is - is not your fault."

"Yes it is," Chaud muttered, looking away. "It's always my fault. Maybe if I wasn't so . . ."

"Please don't finish that sentence," ProtoMan said, practically begged. "It is never your fault, _nothing_ was ever your fault."

"Dark ProtoMan was my fault."

"It was not!"

Chaud was so surprised that he looked back at ProtoMan, and almost regretted it when he did - ProtoMan looked angrier than he'd ever seen, and he couldn't ever recall ProtoMan being angry at _him_.

"Do not _ever_ blame yourself for that!" ProtoMan went on firmly. "We were all in danger, and you had no choice - besides, you fixed it in the end. You practically killed yourself to do so! I will not hear you blame yourself for something like that."

"A-alright," Chaud squeaked, staring at ProtoMan with wide eyes.

Before either of them could speak any further, there was a soft knock on the bathroom door.

"Chaud?" Raika called through the door. "It's . . . been considerably longer than a minute."

Chaud was almost tempted to laugh at that, but he was still feeling . . . well, burnt out, and not just because he was tired.

"I just came to check on you," Raika went on. "We're all worried."

"I'm okay," Chaud called back, ignoring the frown ProtoMan gave him.

"Sorry to be so blunt," Raika said, "but that's a lie and you know it."

Chaud winced and looked at his knees.

"If you need a few more minutes, that's fine," Raika said. "But, Chaud, listen - you're not an idiot."

Chaud froze and glanced up at the door. "Y-you . . . heard that?" he asked.

"I heard everything," Raika answered. "And ProtoMan's right, it's not your fault."

"But I . . . I don't deserve any of this," Chaud said. "I'm not . . ."

Raika sighed. There was a strange sound, almost like something being dragged across a wall, and Chaud realised that Raika had slid down onto the floor and was now sitting against the door.

"I used to think that too," Raika told him. "The first time I ever got a present, I was so confused, I had no idea what to do with it. My uncle tried to explain it to me, and I kept wondering why he gave me something like that. I couldn't understand that I was meant to get some sort of gift on my birthday, because my parents could never afford it and I'd never had one before. I felt like I didn't deserve it, and I was beyond confused. Is . . . is that how you feel?"

" . . . It's similar," Chaud said. Though, of course, he could afford almost anything - and his father could too.

With Raika, it hadn't been a choice, because his parents just simply couldn't give their son anything other than their love. Why was it that Chaud's father, who could afford to give his son anything, wouldn't? Chaud couldn't even remember if his father had ever said 'I love you' to him, and upon realising that, Chaud's breath hitched and he tightened his grip on his PET.

"You know," Raika said quietly, "as I grew up, I started to understand why my uncle gives me a gift on my birthday. And Christmas, when it comes around. It's because he loves me. There doesn't have to be an actual reason, it's just because he wants to show that. And when it's time for his birthday, I do the same for him. It's not what the gift actually is, although that's nice too, but it's the fact that he and I are willing to show our love for each other in such a way. The fact that we're willing to think about things like this, about what kind of things the other likes, so we can get a good gift for each other."

There was a moment of silence which seemed to stretch on forever. Then Raika spoke again.

"I don't know if everyone else here feels the same way," he murmured. "But that's how I feel about it. And I can't tell you how to feel, or what to think, but . . . maybe you could try seeing it that way as well."

Chaud let the silence go on for a while, allowing Raika's words to sink in. He could feel ProtoMan's worried expression, but he ignored it for now, and just replayed the words over and over in his head.

Then he sighed, and stood up carefully - sitting huddled in a bathroom like this wasn't that great on his muscles - and went over to the door. He unlocked it, then paused to give Raika a chance to get up, and opened it slowly.

Raika was just standing up when he opened the door, and he looked down at Chaud, but didn't say anything. He was letting Chaud speak for himself.

"I can try," Chaud said. "Maybe."

"Maybe," Raika agreed, smiling. "Now, do you want to come back downstairs? It's fine if you want a few more minutes. No one will mind."

"I . . . I'll go back," Chaud decided.

Raika nodded, and he led Chaud back downstairs. Upon re-entering the room, everyone glanced up, and Chaud almost shrank away again - but he drew a bit of strength from Raika's quiet presence next to him and managed to force himself to walk over to them, and awkwardly sat down on the floor. Raika dropped down next to him as Chaud placed his PET back onto the table, near the other PETs.

"I'm sorry about the drama," Chaud mumbled. He may have forced himself to come back, but he couldn't look anyone in the eye.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Dr. Hikari assured him. "It wasn't that dramatic anyway."

Chaud managed a small smile.

"Why don't we try this again?" Haruka suggested, and Chaud cringed - he didn't exactly like it when people shouted at him, the volume just made him uncomfortable, even if they weren't angry.

"Ah, no shouting," Raika quickly said, obviously noticing Chaud's reaction. "I don't think he wants us to make a big deal out of this. He's not used to it."

Was he a mind-reader? Chaud had wondered that before, and Raika had only really reinforced that idea ever since, even if he himself didn't realise. To be perfectly honest, with all the craziness that had happened in recent years, Chaud wouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out that Raika really was psychic or something. He certainly had some sort of supernatural ability to know what Chaud was thinking most of the time, anyway.

"That's okay, then," Haruka cheerfully said. "How about we just light the candles, and Chaud can blow them out?"

"Why do I need to blow out candles?" Chaud asked, finally looking up just as Haruka started to set some candles - which, he noticed, were now buried in the cake - on fire. He couldn't remember if those candles had been there before.

"It's tradition on someone's birthday," Maylu explained to him. "You get a birthday cake, and if there's candles, you blow them out and make a wish!"

"A . . . a wish?"

That made no sense to him. What was he even supposed to wish for?

"You don't actually need to make a wish," Raika said. "Just blow out the candles, if that's all you want to do."

"Uh, okay," Chaud replied.

Haruka got all the candles lit, and she stood back to give him some space.

"Go on," Raika encouraged him.

The first time he tried to blow them out, he failed. It was a weak blow, mainly because he wasn't sure what he was meant to do, so the candle flames just flickered and stayed lit.

He tried a second time and blew harder, managing to get most of the flames out aside from a couple, and then he got those out on his third try.

And when he was done, he sat back, and everyone cheered and clapped. He didn't understand why blowing out candles on a cake was such a big deal, or a tradition, but the cheering made him . . . happy. And a little embarrassed, but still happy.

"Okay, time for your presents!" Lan called, plonking the bag down next to Chaud.

"Ah . . ." Chaud looked at the bag, and then at everyone else. "I . . ."

"What is it?" Dr. Hikari asked.

" . . . This is . . . I'm grateful, really, so please don't take this the wrong way, but . . ." Chaud trailed off. He looked at his hands, clasped together on his lap.

"We can help if you want," Lan offered.

"Lan!" Maylu hissed. "They're _his_ presents, not yours."

"N-no, it's okay," Chaud quickly said, glancing up again. "I just . . . It feels . . . awkward, I guess. No one else has anything, so . . ."

"That's kind of the point with birthday presents, but if you don't mind, then we can help you unwrap this lot," Raika said.

"No one open a present that they bought," Haruka warned them. "That would be unfair!"

They all seemed to agree with that, and fairly soon the sound of wrapping paper being ripped apart once again filled the air - though there was considerably less noise than last time, since everyone just had one present, and when they had been opened, the gift inside was given to Chaud. When they were finished with the presents, Haruka cut up the cake, though thankfully she took out the candles before doing so.

And when it was all over, they were all invited to stay the night. There was a brief moment of panic when they all realised that there was a problem - there were more boys than girls, and there wasn't enough room even if Maylu and Yai didn't mind sharing with any of the boys, so in the end they decided to just improvise by having everyone (aside from Dr. Hikari and Haruka) sleep downstairs.

There were eight of them, and the two sofas each could host two people lying down if they were small enough, which still left four to sleep on the floor - but no one seemed to mind. Lan obviously got to sleep on a sofa, since it was his house, and although Chaud protested, he got to sleep on the same sofa because he was the 'birthday boy'. Maylu and Yai got the other, so everyone else grabbed pillows and cusions and dumped them all over the floor in a weird mockery of a nest.

As he was drifting off to sleep, Chaud could honestly say that this was the best Christmas - and birthday - he'd ever had.

 **OOOOOO**

Poor Chaud literally can't understand why they're doing this, but Raika gives him a possible reason - and a good view on how to see this sort of stuff.

And Chaud has guilt. A shitton of guilt. This kid probably needs therapy for half the shit he's gone through in the actual anime itself, nevermind what goes on in _System Error_ 's canon. He probably doesn't realise that his relationship - or lack of - with his father isn't healthy, but he does at least know that there's _something_ wrong with it, though he doesn't know exactly what.

But whatever, Christmas feels!

I realise that these chapters would've been the perfect opportunity to slide in the meaning of Raika's last name, but I don't think it would've fit the mood of this particular 'part'. I'm planning on having a 'part' where our favourite trio of idiot Net Savers discuss names, though, so rest assured - you will get to see Raika being completely embarrassed by his last name at some point.

Anyway, like I said before, this may come before _Just Keep Swimming_ or after it, depending on whether or not I can write and upload _Just keep Swimming_ before Christmas rolls around. If not, then you guys'll probably end up with multiple chapters from me within a few days of each other, which . . . isn't unusual, really, but eh.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Read and review!


	49. Author's Note

Hey guys!

So, I haven't updated for a long time. It's probably safe to say that I've abandoned this fic entirely - I lost interest in it when I started to run out of ideas to write (not to mention the motivation to write more for it), and then I dropped out of the fandom for a while.

But, recently I got back into it, and I re-read this fic just because.

Here's the thing - I don't usually continue older fics of mine, mainly because my writing style changes so damn much. Best example is that I now write primarily from the present-tense style rather than past-tense style, and I'm better at writing in general than I was with this. At least I think I am.

So, I likely won't be continuing this. I'm sorry to anyone who wanted me to, but you can still enjoy the story, so that's something.

If any of you are still reading this and haven't just immediately written a scathing review because I'm abandoning a story I have no motivation to write, then I have some good news! If you're still interested in my EXE stuff, I'm currently writing an EXE story.

Basic plot description - someone accidentally steals Chaud's body from just before the N1, and she has to go through the entire series in his body. It's a bit more complicated than that, but I can't say much else without giving away spoilers.

I'm currently almost finished with the N1 Grand Prix arc, so if anyone's interested, I might upload what I've written so far once I'm finished with that arc - or maybe when I finish the PharaohMan arc, I don't know.

Let me know if you want me to upload what I've written so far! And if you don't wanna read any of my stuff again, I get it, it's fine - I did abandon this and that's not really the mark of a reliable writer, but whatever.

I'm really into this new story, so there's a big chance I'll be able to finish it. Bigger if I have a peanut gallery egging me on, maybe, but I'm not gonna demand reviews, just that you check it out.

The story is gonna be called _Mimic_ , if you're interested!

Alright, see you at the new story, if you want me to upload what I've written. Bye!


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